STATE OF BIHAR Vs. PRESIDING OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard the learned Counsel for the parties.

(2.) The State being aggrieved by the Award dated December 21, 1998 passed in Reference Case No. 3/94 by the Presiding Officer, Labour Court, Pumea, deciding the reference in favour of 139 workmen holding that termination of these workmen was not proper and retrenched workmen were entitled to relief that the retrenched employees would be entitled to be reinstated with full payment of back wages and the allowances, has filed this petition.

(3.) The State has come to this Court inter alia pleading that the Water Resources Department concerned was not an industry under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and as the Division Bench judgment of this Court has clearly observed that the said department of the State is not an Industry, the Labour Court was not justified in making an Award in favour of the workmen. The second plank of the argument is that the workmen were in fact not workmen and their initial appointments were illegal, therefore also the Labour Court was not justified in making the award in favour of the workmen.