WESTERN INDIA AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION Vs. INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from a judgment of a division bench of the High Court of Bombay cancelling a writ of prohibition issued by Coyajee J. against the Industrial Tribunal to which a dispute between the Western India Automobile Association and its workers had been referred under Section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act, XIV of 1947.

(2.) Though a number of points were raised before Coyajee J. and before the division bench, the principal question raised by this appeal relates to the jurisdiction of the Tribunal constituted under the Act to entertain the dispute which had been referred to it. The controversy is firstly as to the scope of the Act, i.e., whether the Act has application to cases of private employers or is limited only to cases where either the Central or the Provincial Government, or a local authority is the employer, and secondly, as to whether the dispute as to reinstatement of certain dismissed employees is a matter which is referable to the Tribunal.

(3.) On an application for a writ of prohibition and a writ of certiorari against the Tribunal restraining it from proceeding with the investigation of this dispute it was held by Coyajee J. that the Western India Automobile Association was an employer and any dispute between it and its workers fell within the ambit of the Act. He, however, held that the dispute as to reinstatement of dismissed employees was outside the scope of the Act. A writ was accordingly ordered to issue. Against this decision an appeal was preferred by the Province of Bombay and another appeal by the Western India Automobile Association. The appeal by the Province of Bombay contested the second finding of the Judge, while in the association's appeal the first finding was challenged. The learned Judges of the division bench by separate judgments dismissed the appeal preferred by the association and confirmed the decision of Coyajee J. on the first point. The appeal filed by the Province was allowed and the decision of Coyajee J. on the second point was set aside. It was held that the dispute as to reinstatement of dismissed employees was an "industrial dispute" between the employer and the employees within the meaning of the Act and the Tribunal had jurisdiction to adjudicate upon it. The same two points that were seriously canvassed before the High Court were urged before us.