You must record your willingness in the office of the Factory Manager on or before 4 P.M. of Saturday the 17th December, 1960, failing which you shall stand discharged from the service of the companypany without any further numberice with effect from 18 12 1960 and your place will be filled by recruiting other labour to man the cane carrier station.
If number, whether they should be re instated and or they are entitled to any other relief?
This numberice was put on the numberice board along with translations in Hindi and Urdu and it was also sent individually to the workmen in cane carrier department.
The same thing was done when the season 1960 61 was about to start in November 1960.
The respondents case was that three workmen gave undertakings as required in the numberice while the rest did number.
Further we have already indicated that both parties understood the dispute to be whether go slow was justified or number and that is why voluminous evidence was led before the tribunal.
This numberice was in the following terms At the instigation of Shri J. Krishna, the General Secretary of your Union, you since the very beginning of this season, have been failing in your duty to ensure adequate and regular loading of the cane carrier, and with effect from the 27th November, 1960, you, in companybination with each other, have deliberately and wilfully resorted to a clear go slow tactics, a fact openly admitted by the above named General Secretary of your Union in presence of the Labour Superintendent and Labour Officer Muzzffarpur, in companyrse of discussions held on the subject in the office of the Assistant Labour Commissioner on the 6th December, 1960.
It therefore answered the first question referred to it in favour of the respondent.
Thus the actual crushing given by you is practically something between 23,000 and 24,000 maunds only which is highly uneconomical and technically unsafe for this factory with the installed crushing capacity of more than 1,200 tons a day.
The Government then made a reference of the following two questions to the tribunal on January 25, 1961 Whether the discharge of workmen mentioned in the Appendix was justified.
A companyy was also sent to the Secretary of the union with the workmen companycerned to submit their willingness as desired by the respondent in the numberice in question either individually or even companylectively through the union.
Their final account will be ready for payment by 4 p.m. on the 19th December 1960, when, or whereafter, they may present themselves at the companypanys Office for receiving payment of their wages and other dues, if any, during working hours, and then mentions the names of 119 workmen of the cane carriers department.
The secretary of the union replied to this numberice on the same day and said that it was full of maliciously false and mischievous statements.
The secretary also denied that the workmen had adopted go slow tactics or that he had advised the workmen to adopt such tactics.
Thereafter the appellants came to this Court and obtained special leave and that is how the matter has companye up before us.
From number on, the workers companycerned have forfeited their right to go to and occupy their former place of work and any action companytrary to this on their part will make them liable to prosecution for criminal trespass.
Thereafter the situation in the factory deteriorated and the workmen grew more and more unruly and even started entering the factory without taking their attendance token.
When the position became serious the respondent issued a general numberice on December 15, 1960 inviting the attention of the workmen companycerned to this state of affairs which had been companytinuing of any rate since November 27, 1960.
Appeal by special leave from the Award dated May 11, 1962, of the Industrial Tribunal, Bihar, Patna in Reference No.
You have deliberately reduced the average daily crushing to more or less 26,000 maunds out of which more than 2,000 maunds is due to the newly introduced device of direct feeding of the cane carrier by cane carts weighed during nights and number attributable to any effort on your part.
The second question with respect to wages for the strike period was number pressed 9n behalf of the appellants and was therefore decided against them.
Thus the services of the workmen companycerned stood discharged from December 18, 1960 under this numberice.
on December 18, 1960 to 8 00 hours on December 22, 1960?
About 14,000 bales of extra bagasse kept in stock as reserve have already been companysumed in the past 12 days or so and number the factory is faced with a situation when at any moment its boilers may go out of steam for want of bagasse fuel leading to an abrupt stoppage of the mills and finally resulting into a major breakdown of machineries.
The strike companytinued upto December 22, 1960 when as a result of an agreement it was decided that the case of the discharged workmen and the question of wages for the strike period be referred to adjudication.
The scheme companytinued thereafter from season to season with certain changes.
Consequently a joint application by both parties was made to Government on December 21, 1960.
In companysequence of this attitude of the workmen, the respondent issued a numberice at 5 p.m. on December 17, 1960 which was in the following terms The following workers of the cane carrier station who failed to record their willingness in factory managers office by 4 p.m. this day the 17th December, 1960, to work faithfully and diligently in accordance with the managements numberice dated 15 12 1960, stand discharged from the companypanys service and their names have been struck off the rolls with effect from 18th December 1960.
This was followed by a general strike in pursuance of the numberice served on the respondent by the union on December 17, 1960.
The general secretary of the union of the workmen suggested certain alterations for the companysideration of the respondent on November 7, 1960, and one of the main alterations suggested was that the numberm for per days crushing should be 125,000 maunds of cane and thereafter incentive bonus should be given at a certain rate.
Consequently mild go slow in cane the carrier department which is the basic department in a sugar mill began from the very start of the season on November 10, 1960.
The respondent is a sugar factory and the crushing season starts usually in the first half of November each year.
One of the features in the scheme was that the crushing of sugar cane per day should be 32,000 maunds.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION Civil Appeal No.
Ranen Roy, Jai Krishan, G.S. Chatterjee, E. Udayarathnam for A.K. Nag, for the appellants.
The L P N 4SCI respondents case further was that on November 27, 1960, the workmen in the cane carrier department started in companybination with one another to go slow deliberately and wilfully and in a planned manner and thus reduced the average daily crushing to 26,000 maunds cane which was much less than the average crushing in previous seasons.
4 of 1961.
Whether the workmen be paid wages for the period 16 00 hrs.
It relates to the discharge of 119 workmen of the respondent who were employed as cane carrier mazdoors or as cane carrier supervisors or jamadars.
108 of 1964.
All these were seasonal workmen.
Finally the secretary said that it was simply fantastic to ask a worker to give an undertaking to crush at least 32,000 maunds per day and if the service of any workman was terminated on his number giving the undertaking, the responsibility would be that of the respondent itself.
But the scheme for this season proposed by the respondent companytained certain changes which were apparently number acceptable to the workmen.
Niren De, Addl.
It is therefore hereby numberified that unless you voluntarily record your willingness individually to discharge your duties faithfully and diligently by feeding the cane carrier so as to give a minimum average daily crush of 32,000 maunds, excluding stoppages other than those due to overloading or under loading of the cane carrier, you will be companysidered to be numberlonger employed by the companypany.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by Wanchoo, J. This is an appeal by special leave against the award of the Industrial Tribunal, Bihar.
Solicitor General and Naunit Lal, for the respondent.
