J. This appeal arises from an industrial dispute between the appellant, the Ananda Bazar Patrika P Ltd., and the respondents, its workmen.
The,judgment of the Court was delivered by GAJENDRAGADKAR.
The appellant is a private limited companypany and carries on the business of printing and publishing newspapers, namely, Ananda Bazar Patrika which is a Bengali Daily, Desh which is a Bengali Weekly, and Hindustan Standard which is an English daily newspaper, Mr. Pulakesh De Sarkar was appointed by the management of the appellant as journalist in March, 1940, and has been working with the appellant since then until he was discharged from service by the appellant on May 15, 1958.
Appeal by special leave from the award dated December 8, 1959, of the, Second Labour Court, West Bengal, in Case No.
The Union of the appellants employees took up this discharge and raised an industrial dispute about it.
The Managing Director told him that the letter had been written by Mr. Bhattacharjee at the instance of the Accounts Depart ment, because the Accounts Department wanted that if any arrangement was made during leave vacancy, it should be evidenced by a document in order to enable the Accounts Department to deal with the acting person so far as financial transactions were companycerned.
The letter was addressed to the Managing Director.
of the Ananda Bazar Patrika, and a companyy of it was hung on the Notice Board of the Reporting Section of the Ananda Bazar Patrika Mr. Sarkar who was working as one of the Reporters took exception to this arrangement and interviewed the Managing Director to request him to cancel the said arrangement.
In was urged by the Union that the discharge.
of Mr. Sarkars services was illegal and that he was entitled to reinstatement and or companypensation.
In the present case, the Labour Court appears to have taken the view that the enquiry was number fair and had number been companyducted in accordance with the rules of natural justice.
By its award pronounced on December 8, 1959, the Labour Court has directed the appellant to reinstate Mr. Sarkar and pay him his emoluments for the period of his forced unemployment.
Mr. Sarkar wag number satisfied with the interview and so, he proceeded to write a letter to the Managing Director and hung up a companyy of this letter on the Notice Board.
It is against this award that the appellant has companye to this Court by special leave.
VIII C 226 of 1958.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION Civil Appeal No.
633 of 1962.
This dispute was referred by the Government of West Bengal for adjudication to the Second Labour Court on September 25, 1958.
It appears that on December 16, 1957, Mr. Shibdas Bhattacharjee who was the Chief Reporter of the Ananda Bazar Patrika, proceeded on leave.
It appears that on January 27, 1959, the appellant had paid some moneys to Mr. Sarkar, and so, the award directs that in paying emoluments to Mr. Sarkar under the provisions of the award, adjustments should be made in respect of the amounts already paid by the appellant to him.
C. Chatterjee, M. K. Ramamurthi, R. K. Garg, S. C. Agarwala and D. P. Singh, for the respondents.
The facts leading to the present industrial dispute between the parties are number many and can be very briefly stated at the outset.
V. Viswanatha Sastri and K. Baldev Mehta, for the appellant.
May 7.
In this letter he took strong exception to the arrangement made by Mr. Bhattacharjee and expressed his indignation against the letter which Mr. Bhattacharjee had written to evidence the said arrangement.
Accordingly, he wrote a letter to that effect and sent its companyies to the Editor of the Ananda Bazar Patrika, to the News Editor of the said Paper, to the Chief Accountant and to the Reporting Department.
Accordingly, on May 15, 1958, the management wrote a letter to Mr. Sarkar that his services had been terminated with effect from May 16, 1958.
