Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 — Sections 10 & 11 — Regularisation

March 28th, 2013

Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 — Sections 10 & 11 — Regularisation — Industrial dispute reference — Sustainability of — Service of jewel appraisers in appellant-bank sought to be regularized — Writ petition challenging — Interim order of stay against proceeding before tribunal — Later, on statement of appellant-bank to withdraw the writ petition unconditionally — No reason why pending reference should not be allowed to proceed — Ordered accordingly.

HELD: Counsel appearing for the respondent No.1-The Karur Vysya Bank Employees’ Union, submitted that the Union will have no objection to the disposal of this appeal provided the questions sought to be raised by it are allowed to be agitated and urged before the Tribunal in the pending reference. He submitted that so long as the Bank Employees Union has an opportunity to seek redress for the benefit of its members in the pending reference, it will not insist upon the making of an independent reference which will, in any case, be an unnecessary and avoidable duplication of the proceedings.

In the circumstances and in the light of the submissions made at the bar, we see no reason why pending ID reference No.102 of 2003 which is comprehensive enough, cannot suffice, not only to cover the points urged by the All India Bank Appraisers Federation, Tamil Nadu, but also those sought to be raised by the Bank Employees Union. The only impediment in the reference being taken to its logical conclusion is the pendency of writ petitions filed by the appellant-Bank before the High Court at Madras. Since the appellant-Bank has made a statement that the writ petitions in question shall be withdrawn unconditionally, there is no reason why the pending reference should not be allowed to proceed and the disputes referred to therein adjudicated upon by the Tribunal, on their merits. Dr. Rajeev Dhawan, learned senior counsel, submits that the appellant-Bank will take steps to withdraw the writ petitions mentioned above within a period of two weeks from today.

In the result, therefore, we dispose of this appeal with the observations that the appellant-Bank shall within two weeks from today withdraw Writ Petition (Civil) Nos. 22658 and 22659 of 2008, in which event, the Tribunal shall be free to proceed with the reference already made to which the respondent No.1-Bank Employees Union has already been added as a party. In view of the withdrawal of the said writ petitions and revival of the reference made by the Central Government, it will be unnecessary for the Union of India to make a second reference on the very same questions as are pending before the Tribunal.

Karur Vyasa Bank Ltd. v. Karur Vyasa Bank Employees Union[Bench Strength 2], Civil Appeal No. 3292/2012 (Arising out of SLP (Civil) No. 6689/2007)(26/03/2012), 2012(4) SCALE 379 [T.S. Thakur, J.: Gyan Sudha Misra, J.]

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