Appeal No 2568 of 1966
Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated March 23 1966 of the Patna High Court in Misc
Judicial Case No 118 of 1963
H R Gokhale and Sukumar Ghose for the appellant
M K Ramamurthi Shymala Pappu and Vineet Kumar for the respondents
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by Bhargava J
The Government of Bihar by an Order dated 14th June 1961 referred an industrial dispute under section 101 of the 14 of 1947 to the Labour Court Patna wherein the following two issues were referred 1 Whether the discharge of the following forty workmen was proper If not whether they are entitled to reinstatement andor any other relief 2 Whether the above mentioned workmen are entitled to be made permanent Subsequently the Government issued an Order by way of corrigendum on the 19th July 1961 substituting Ranchi for Patna 62 in the original order of reference dated 14th June 1961
The effect of this corrigendum was that the reference of the dispute instead of being made to the Labour Court Patna came before the Labour Court Ranchi
In the proceedings before that Court the principal objections that was raised was that the Government having once made a reference to the Labour Court Patna was not competent to cancel or withdraw that reference and could not make a competent reference of the same industrial dispute to the Labour Court Ranchi so that the latter Court had no jurisdiction to deal with the reference
The case before the Labour Court was also contested on various other grounds but we need only mention those grounds which have been urged before us in this appeal
While the Labour Court was dealing with the reference adjournments were sought on behalf of the appellant Ms Dabur Dr section K Burman Private Ltd
After decision of some preliminary points by the order dated 18th August 1962 the case was fixed for hearing on 19th November 1962
On that date the management again prayed for an adjournment on the ground that their local Manager Sri Basant Jha had been lying ill for some time past and it was not possible for the management to prosecute their case with diligence
The Labour Court rejected this application and thereupon proceeded to hear the reference ex parte
The Labour Court held that the reference to it was competent and it had jurisdiction to deal with it even though by the original order of reference the Government had purported to refer the dispute to the Labour Court Patna
On the first issue referred the Court recorded the finding that the 40 workmen who had been discharged were not casual workers and that their discharge by the employers on the basis that they were casual workers was not proper
It was further held that the discharge was mala fide inasmuch as the purpose of the discharge was to avoid the liability of treating these workmen as permanent employees by preventing them from completing 240 days of work in a year
There was the further finding that the workmen were all discharged from service as they had demanded increase in rates of wages and had also claimed that Sundays should be made paid holidays
Against this award the appellant filed a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution in the High Court of Patna requesting that Court to quash the award
That Court upheld the award and dismissed the writ petition
Consequently the appellant has come up to this Court by special leave against that judgment of the High Court
Mr Gokhale appearing on behalf of the appellant emphati cally urged that both the Labour Court Ranchi as well as the Patna High Court were wrong in holding thatthe reference to the Labour Court Ranchi was competent even after the reference 63 had originally been made to the Labour Court Patna
He relied on the principle laid down by this Court that once the Government has made a reference to a particular Labour Court it is that Labour Court which becomes seized of that industrial dispute and thereafter the Government has no jurisdiction either to withdraw that reference or cancel it
In this case however as is clear from the judgment of the High Court the question that arose was entirely different
The High Court has clearly held that this was not a case where the Government either withdrew or cancelled the reference to the Labour Court Patna
The High Court has held that from the facts stated by the appellant in the writ petition filed in that Court it appeared that the alteration in the order of reference was a mere correction of a clerical error
because by mistake Patna had been mentioned in place of Ranchi in the first notification
The second notification merely corrected that mistake
Mr Gokhale wanted us to hold that the High Court was wrong in its view that the Government had merely made  correction of a clerical error and that we should accept the submission on behalf of the appellant that in fact the State Government bad first intentionally referred the dispute to the Labour Court Patna and issued the corrigendum only when the Government decided that the reference should go to the Labour Court Ranchi and not Labour Court Patna because Labour Court Patna bad no jurisdiction to entertain the reference
We are unable to accept this submission made on behalf of the appellant
The High Court drew in inference from the facts stated in the writ petition filed by the appellant itself that this was a case of mere correction of a clerical error
This finding recorded by the High Court on the basis of the facts given in the writ petition is not now open to challenge in this special appeal particularly because even a copy of that writ petition has not been made a part of the paper book before us
We cannot see how any objection can be taken to the competence of the State Government to make a correction of a mere clerical error
The finding that it was a clerical error means that the Government in fact intended to make the reference to the Labour Court Ranchi but while actually scribing the order of reference a mistake was committed by the writer of putting down Patna instead of Ranchi
Such a clerical error can always be corrected and such a correction does not amount either to the withdrawal of the reference from
or cancellation of the reference to
the Labour Court Patna
The High Court was
therefore
right in rejecting this contention on behalf of the appellant
On merits Mr Gokhale wanted to urge only two points before us One was that the Labour Court committed a manifest error of law apparent on the face of the record in holding that the workmen concerned were not casual workers
The judgment of the High Court however shows that before that Court 64 it was nowhere urged or argued that any such error of law apparent on the face of the record had been committed by the Labour Court
What was urged before the High Court was that even on the ex parte evidence on record the Labour Court ought to have held that the workmen were mere casual labourers
The High Court was right in holding that this point urged on behalf of the appellant essentially raised a question of fact only and that Court in its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution could not interfere on such a question of fact
Since no submission was made before the High Court that the finding of the Labour Court that the workmen are not casual labourers suffers from any manifest error of law apparent on the face of the record the appellant is not entitled to raise this point in this special appeal before us
On the finding actually recorded by the Labour Court and upheld by the High Court the order of the Labour Court directing reinstatement of these workmen is fully justified so that the order made by the Labour Court insofar as it is against the interests of the appellant is correct and must be upheld
In view of this position it is unnecessary to go into the question whether the Labour Court was or was not right in recording the finding as to mala fides
The only other point urged was that the Labour Court should not have proceeded ex parte when material was placed before that Court on behalf of the appellant to show that its local Manager Sri Basant Jha was in fact lying ill
The question whether an adjournment should or should not have been granted on this ground was in the discretion of the Labour Court
Even the order by which the Labour Court rejected that application for adjournment is not before us and consequently it cannot be held that the Labour Court committed any such error in rejecting the application for adjournment and proceeding ex parte as would justify interference by this Court
The appeal fails and is dismissed with costs
YP Appeal dismissed


Summary:
The Government referred an industrial dispute to Labour Court Patna and subsequently issued an order by way of corrigendum substituting Ranchi for Patna
In proceedings before the Labour Court Ranchi objection was raised that once having made the reference to the Labour Court Patna the Government was not competent to cancel or withdraw that reference so the Labour Court Ranchi had no jurisdiction
The Labour Court Ranchi rejected the objection
The High Court also rejected this Contention
In appeal to this Court HELD The alteration in the order of reference was a mere correction of a clerical error
because by mistake Patna had been mentioned in place of Ranchi in the first notification and the second notification merely corrected that mistake
Such a clerical error can always be corrected and such a correction does not amount either to the withdrawal of the reference from or cancellation of the re ference to the Labour Court Patna
63F H