Then, on April 9, 1957, Shri A. N.Gujral was appointed as presiding officer of a new Tribunal companystituted under s. 7C of the Act.
The present reference came up before him and resulted in the award dated February 11, 1960, which is the subject matter of the present appeal.
188 of 1961 decided on February 8, 1963.
If number, to what relief are the following workmen entitled ?
Then again, under s. 7 b , Shri A. N. Gujral would have had to retire on June 4, 1957, when he would have attained the age of C. A No.
On June 5, 1958, six of the workmen who had been discharged on May 8, 1958, sent a representation to the management companyplaining that the closure of the branch was unjustified, that as all the branches of the Company formed one unit, the retrenchment should be done according to All India seniority basis and that the workmen had a legal right to get employment in the other branches.
The business of that branch companysisted, apart from the sale of goods manufactured by the appellant, in the execution of the companytracts of the I.C.C. Ltd., with the Government of Punjab, which it had taken over.
Appeal by special leave from the award dated February 11, 1960, of the Industrial Tribunal, Punjab, Reference No.
It is the ease of the workmen that they received the amounts under protest.
The validity of this appointment is attacked on the ground that as his appointment as Tribunal on April 28, 1953, was in valid he was number qualified to be appointed under s. 7A 3 b of the Act.
By its order dated August 17, 1959, the Tribunal overruled these objections.
The Punjab Government was number companypetent to make the order of reference dated February 2, 1959.
On June 4, 1959, the term of office of Shri A. N. Gujral expired, and Shri Passey, retired Judge of the Punjab High Court was appointed as Tribunal in his place.
A companyy of this representation was sent to the Punjab Government, which issued a numberification on February 2, 1959, referring the dispute for adjudication to the Industrial Tribunal, Punjab, under s. 1 d of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, hereinafter referred to as the Act.
The branch at Ambala was an industrial establishment within s. 25G and that having been closed numberrelief companyld be granted to the workmen under that section.
It is against this award that the present appeal by special leave has been brought.
Among the branches thus taken over was the one at Ambala.
B. Pai, J. B. Dadachanji, 0.
The appellant Company then decided to take them over and run them as its own.
5 of 1959.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION Civil Appeal No.
March 5.
C. Mathur and Ravinder Narain, for the appellant.
The appellant is a Public Limited Company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1913, and it carries on business in the manufacture and sale of electric cables, wires etc.
This evidence is fully borne out by the companymunication dated November 23, 1955, companytaining the terms on which the respondents and other workmen in the, branches were employed.
5 of 1959 on February 11, 1960.
The present reference which was made to him on February 2, 1959, is said to be invalid on the ground that Shri Gujral was number validly in office.
The validity of his appointment is impugned on the ground that it is number in accordance with s. 7 3 c of the Act.
During this period, a companypany incorporated in England and called the British Insulated Callendars Cables Ltd. referred to as the B.I.C.C. Ltd., in these proceedings was carrying on business in the sale of cables and wires in India with branches at Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Delhi, Trivandrum, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Kanpur, Bangalore and Ambala.
The workmen in the service of the B.I.C.C. Ltd. were most of them offered reemployment on terms and companyditions companytained in a companymunication dated November 23, 1955, sent by the appellant to them, and they having accepted them the branches began to function as those of the appellant from January 1,.
402 of 1961.
C.A. No.
B. Aggarwal, H. C. Aggarwal and Janardan Sharma, for the respondents.
Then the matter was heard on the merits, and on February 11, 1960, the Tribunal pronounced its award directing the appellant to take back the six workmen in their employment with effect from 8 5 1958 so that there is numberbreak in the companytinuity of service of any of them and to pay them their full wages from 8 5 1958 till the date they are absorbed.
Towards the end of 1955, the B.I.C.C. Ltd. decided to stop its trading in India and to close its branches.
The material facts bearing on this question are that Shri A.N. Gujral was appointed to the Industrial Tribunal on April 28, 1953, when he was over sixty years of age.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by VENKATARAMA AIYAR, J. This is an appeal by special leave against the award of the Industrial Tribunal, Punjab, passed in Reference No.
The disputes of the workmen were individual disputes and number industrial disputes as defined in the Act and that, in companysequence the Government had numberpower to refer the same for adjudication.
375 of 1960 decided on February 12, 1962.
Then follow the names of the six workmen.
The appellant has urged the following companytentions in support of this appeal The Tribunal was number companypetent to entertainer adjudicate on the reference.
The reference was in these terms Whether the retrenchment of the following workmen of Ambala Branch of the Indian Cable Company Ltd., is justified and legal under the provisions of section 25 G of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and whether the seniority of workmen in all the branches of the companypany was pooled for the purpose of effecting retrenchment?
Before the Tribunal, the appellant raised cer tain preliminary objections to the maintainability of the referedce.
