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TMI Blog1952 (12) TMI 44X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r the Act and thereby committed a breach of those terms which were binding on him. The first respondent raised a preliminary objection before the Magistrate that the latter had no jurisdiction to proceed with the enquiry because the award on which the prosecution was based was ultra vires and void on the ground that the reference to the Industral Tribunal which resulted in the award was not made by the Government in accordance with the requirements of section 10 'of the Act. As the Magistrate refused to deal with the abjection as a preliminary point, the first respondent applied to the High Court under article 226 of the Constitution for a writ of certiorari to quash the proceeding pending before the Magistrate. The application was heard in the first instance by a single Judge who referred the matter to a Division Bench in view of the important questions involved, and it was accordingly heard and decided by Govinda Menon and Basheer Ahmed Sayeed JJ. who upheld the objection and quashed the proceeding by their order dated 15th November, 1950. From that order the State of Madras has preferred this appeal. The second respondent, the South Indian Cinema Employees' Association ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... suggested by him and enumerating the ten demands put forward by the employee, the Labour Commissioner stated as follows:- "As the employers have not accepted even the minimum terms suggested by me and as the employees are restive, I apprehend that they may strike work at' anytime. I therefore suggest that the above demands made by the workers may be referred to an Industrial Tribunal for adjudication. I have advised the workers to defer further action on their notice pending the orders of Government," and he concluded by suggesting the appointment of a retired District and Sessions Judge as the sole member of the Special Industrial Tribunal " to adjudicate on this dispute." Thereupon the Government issued the G. O. M. S. No. 2227 dated 20th May, 1947, in the following terms: " Whereas an industrial dispute has arisen between the workers and managements of the cinema talkies in, the Madras City in respect of certain matters ; And whereas in the opinion of His Excellency the Governor of Madras, it is necessary to refer the said industrial dispute for adjudication; Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 7 (1) and (2) read with se ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 1947, which was confirmed by the Government on 13th February, 1948, and was declared binding on the workers and the managements with effect from 25th February, 1948, the date of its publication in the Fort St. George Gazette, for a period of one year from that date. It is alleged that the first respondent failed to implement certain provisions of the award when their implementation was due and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 29 of the Act. No prosecution, however, was instituted till 24th April, 1950, as, in the meanwhile, certain decisions of the Madras High Court tended to throw doubt on the validity of references made in general terms without specifying the particular disputes or the groups of workers and managements between whom such disputes existed, and legislation was considered necessary to validate awards passed on such references. Accordingly the Industrial Disputes (Madras Amendment) Act, 1949, was passed on 10th April, 1949, purporting to provide, inter alia, that all awards made by any Industrial Tribunal constituted before the commencement of that Act shall be deemed to be valid and shall not be called in question in, any court of law on the gro ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ommenced, or having been commenced when the statute was in force, could not be continued after its expiry. Those decisions have no application here. The first respondent is prosecuted for an offence made punishable under section 29 of the Act which is a permanent statute and when he committed the alleged breach of some, of the terms of the award, which was in force at the time, he incurred the liability to be prosecuted under the Act. The fact that the award subsequently expired cannot affect that liability. On behalf of the appellant, the Advocate- General of Madras urged that the question whether there existed an industrial dispute when the Government made the reference now under consideration was an issue of fact which the High Court ought not to have found in the negative at this preliminary stage before evidence was recorded by the trial court. He submitted, however, that, on the facts already appearing on the record, there could be no reasonable doubt that an industrial dispute did exist at the relevant time. We are. inclined to agree. The ten demands set forth in the Labour Commissioner's letter of the 13th May, 1947, which were not agreed to by the managements of the 24 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dispute between the petitioner (the first respondent herein) and his workmen ............... In fact there was no dispute to be referred to a Tribunal so far as this petitioner is concerned. If, therefore, there was no jurisdiction to make any reference, it follows that the whole reference and the award are both invalid and not binding on the petitioner." This view gives no effect to the words "or is apprehended " in section 10 (1). In the present case, the Government referred " and industrial dispute between the workers and managements of cinema talkies in Madras City in respect of certain matters." As pointed out in the Labour Commissioner's letter to the Government, there were 24 cinema companies in Madras, and the Association, which, as a duly registered trade union, represented their employees, put forward the demands on behalf of the employees of all the cinema houses in the City. Fifteen out of 43 workers of the " Prabhat Talkies " were admittedly members of the Association which thus figured as one of the parties to the dispute. In that situation, the Government may have thought, without a close examination of the conditions in each i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... isions of this Court exemplified in the cases referred to by me above has not been overruled by their Lordships of the Federal Court." Basheer Ahmed Sayeed J. I however, sought to distinguish the decision of the Federal Court on the facts of that case, remarking "that a reading of the order of reference that was the subject-matter of the Federal Court decision conveys a clear idea as to a definite dispute, its nature and existence and the parties between whom the dispute existed." It is, however,, clear from the order of reference which is fully extracted in the judgment that it did not mention what the particular dispute was, and it was in repelling the objection based on that omission that Kania C.J. said: "The section does not require that the particular dispute should be mentioned in the order; it is sufficient if the existence of a dispute and the fact that the dispute is referred to the Tribunal are clear from the order. To that extent the order does not appear to be defective. Section 10 of the Act, however, requires a reference of the dispute to the Tribunal. The Court has to read the -order as a whole and determine whether in effect the order makes su ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uch cases the Government must have the power, in order to maintain industrial peace and production, to set in motion the machinery of settlement with its sanctions and prohibitions without stopping to enquire what specific points the contending parties are quarrelling about, and it would seriously, detract from the usefulness of the statutory machinery to construe section 10 (1) as denying such power to the Government. We find nothing in the language of that provision to compel such construction. The Government must, of course, have sufficient knowledge of the nature of the dispute to be satisfied that it is an industrial dispute within the meaning of the Act, as, for instance, that it relates to retrenchment or reinstatement. But, beyond this no obligation can be held to lie on the Government to ascertain particulars of the disputes before making a reference under section 10 (1) or to specify them in the order. This conclusion derives further support from clause (a) of section 10 (1) which provides in the same language for a reference of the dispute to a Board for promoting a settlement. A Board is part of the conciliation machinery provided by the Act, and it cannot be said that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... planned national economy, it is obviously in the interest of the public that labour disputes should be peacefully and quickly settled within the frame-work of the Act rather than by resort to methods of direct action which are only too well calculated to disturb the public peace and order and diminish production in the country, and courts should not be astute to discover formal defects and technical flaws to overthrow such settlements. In the result we set aside the order of the High Court and dismiss the first respondent's petition. Vivian Bose J.- I agree but would have preferred to rest my decision on the ground that in this case there was sufficient compliance with the terms of section 10(1) (C) of the Act even on the first respondent's interpretation of it, namely that the words, " the dispute " require Government to indicate the nature of the dispute which the Tribunal is required to settle. I say this because, in my judgment, we must read the order of the 20th May, 1947, along with the documentS which accompanied it. I also agree that one must not be over-technical, but had it not been for the /of act that the point is now settled by the decision in the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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