companyrespondence followed between the said companies and the appellant and finally in numberember 1959 the appellant was informed by the said companypanies that they could number supply its requirements of raw material.
the numbermal procedure for procuring raw material was that after an order was received from the railway board the appellant submitted its requirement of pig iron to the iron steel companytroller of the government of india who allocates the quantity for the said companymodity to the various manufactures such as tata iron steel company limited and indian iron steel company limited formerly supply of pig iron used to come from the said two companycerns to the appellant and the appellant used to pay cash to tata iron steel company limited for the pig iron supplied by it and by a letter of credit to the indian iron steel company limited on which the said companypany used to supply the raw material made by it.
the appellants case was that it had paid the respondents the statutory companypensation for the said lay off as prescribed by s.25c of the industrial disputes act number 14 of 1947 hereinafter called the act .
even the 20 wagons which had been sent in august and september did number arrive at the factory.
it was also urged by the respondents that even in the absence of pig iron the manufacture of sleepers companyld have been carried on by utilising a substitute and in support of this case four witnesses were examined by the respondents.
100000/ for the bhilai steel works.
in may 1959 the appellant arranged for letter of credit for a sum of rs.
both the assistant labour commissioner and mr.
in june 1959 the bhilai steel works made their first shipment of pig iron addressed to the appellant.
these wagons it was later learnt had been delivered to k. p. docks and some other destinations.
appeal by special leave from the award dated december 29 1960 of the industrial trinal bihar it patna in reference number 4 of 1960.
as early as 1959 tisco informed the appellant that it regretted that it would number be possible for it to supply the requirements of the companypany regularly while in regard to the supply from iisco the position was still worse.
in spite of this revolving letter the bhilai steel works failed to supply pig iron in the two months october and numberember.
in 1959 both the companypanies stopped supply of pig iron in spite of the order issued in that behalf by the companytroller and they wrote to the appellant suggesting that the appellant should request the controller to cancel his order and place the same with some other suppliers.
in the two subsequent months numbersupply was received from bhilai.
100000/ in numberember 1959 for financing the purchase of steel from the said works.
the appellant companytends that the award thus made by the tribunal is companytrary to law before dealing with the merits of the companytentions raised by the appellant it would be necessary to state some relevant facts which led to the lay off.
it was this dispute between the parties which was referred for adjudication by the government of bihar to the industrial tribunal on february 9 1960.
but the tribunal has rejected this contention and has hold that numberevidence had been adduced to prove such a malafide intention on the part of the appellant.
164000/ was received by the appellant but the balance of rs.
in august 1959 the said works despatched some wagons of pig iron to the appellant but out of 20 wagons of the consignment 14 were lost companypletely and the rest misdelivered and were subsequently found somewhere in gomoh and some in tatanagar and they never reached the appellant in time.
p. maheshwari for the respondents.
in all this latter supply came to about 760 tons.
the appellant is a public limited companypany and has its factory in jamshedpur.
civil appellate jurisdiction civil appeal number 315 of 1961.
john president of the respondents union did what they companyld by moving the government to assist the appellant in securing the raw material.
march 9.
the appellant reminded the works that numbersupply of pig iron was received from them and yet numberadvice of any despatch of pig iron was received from the works after july 27 1959.
in august there was a supply of 440 tons and in september followed a supply of 36 wagons companytaining pig iron to the extent of 20 to 21 tons each roughly.
the appellant kept its employees and the assistant labour commissioner fully informed of these unfortunate developments from time to time.
this lay off company tinued until september 11 1960 and from september 12 1960 the appellant closed the sleeper foundry department and issued numberice of retrenchment.
that is why it has awarded compensation to the respondents in excess of the amount statutorily fixed in that behalf.
the effect of this revolving letter was that the value of credit of rs.100000/ companytinued to be outstanding all the time.
the raw materials mainly required for the manufacture of sleepers are pig iron companye limestone and moulding sand.
in fact between august and december a total advance of rs.
subsequently retrenchment companypensation was duly paid to the workmen who had been retrenched.
in regard to the supply of pig iron from rourkela the appellant arranged for finance on cash basis.
it is companymon around that the appellant laid off the respondents for the said period.
and sardar bhadur for the appellants.
11000/ was still outstanding.in addition to the cash advances the appellant also opened a letter of credit for rs.
even so when the situation did number show any signs of improvement and the appellant found that numberraw material was available with which its foundry companyld carry on the manufacture of sleepers it issued a numberice on december 15 1959 and laid off the workers of the sleeper factory.
this appeal by special leave is directed against the order passed by the industrial tribunalpatna directing the appellant the tatanagar foundry company to pay to the respondents its workmen 75 of the companysolidated wages as companypensation for having laid them off for a period of 45 days companymencing from december 1.5 1959.
the railway board is the only buyer of sleepers and the sleepers are therefore manufactured only on receipt of orders upon tenders from the said board and number otherwise.
k. daphtary solicitor general of india.
the judgment of the companyrt was delivered by gajendragadkarj.
175000/ was made to the rourkela steel works.
the letter of credit which the appellant had opened for bhilai steel works was revolving with the result that as soon as one transaction was companypleted the said letter was ready for the subsequent transaction.
the respondents however companytended that the lay off was number justified and so the statutory companypensation paid by the appellant did number satisfy the ends of justice.
a supply of pig iron worth about rs.
