Civil Appeal No 3844 of 1983
Appeal by Special leave from the Judgment and Order dated the 25th July 1980 of the Delhi High Court in LPA No 89 of 1976
AK Gupta for the Appellant
GB Pai SN Bhandari and Ashok Grover for Respondent
No 3
RN Poddar for Respondent No 1
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by 951 CHINNAPPA REDDY J
It was just the other day that we were bemoaning the unbecoming devices adopted by certain employers to avoid decision of industrial disputes on merits
We noticed how they would raise various preliminary objections invite decision on those objections in the first instance carry the matter to the High Court under article 226 of the Constitution and to this Court under article 136 of the Constitution and delay a decision of the real dispute for years sometimes for over a decade
Industrial peace one presumes hangs in the balance in the meanwhile
We have now before us a case where a dispute originating in 1969 and referred for adjudication by the Government to the Labour Court in 1970 is still at the stage of decision on a preliminary objection
There was a time when it was thought prudent and wise policy to decide preliminary issues first
But the time appears to have arrived for a reversal of that policy
We think it is better that tribunals particularly those entrusted with the task of adjudicating labour disputes where delay may lead to misery and jeopardise industrial peace should decide all issues in dispute at the same time without trying some of them as preliminary issues
Nor should High Courts in the exercise of their jurisdiction under article 226 of the Constitution stop proceedings before a Tribunal so that a preliminary issue may be decided by them
Neither the jurisdiction of the High Court under article 226 of the Constitution nor the jurisdiction of this Court under article 136 may be allowed to be exploited by those who can well afford to wait to the detriment of those who can ill afford to wait by dragging the latter from Court to Court for adjudication of peripheral issues avoiding decision on issues more vital to them
article 226 and article 136 are not meant to be used to break the resistance of workmen in this fashion
Tribunals and Courts who are requested to decide preliminary questions must therefore ask themselves whether such threshold part adjudication is really necessary and whether it will not lead to other woeful consequences
After all tribunals like Industrial Tribunals are constituted to decide expeditiously special kinds of disputes and their jurisdiction to so decide is not to be stifled by all manner of preliminary objections journeyings up and down
It is also worth while remembering that the nature of the jurisdiction under article 226 is supervisory and not appellate while that under article 136 is primarily supervisory but the Court may exercise all necessary appellate powers to do substantial justice
In the exercise of such jurisdiction neither the High Court nor this Court is required to be too astute to interfere with the exercise of jurisdiction by special tribunals at interlocutory stages and on preliminary issues
952 Having sermonised this much we may now proceed to state the facts which provoked the sermon
The appellant DP Maheshwari was an employee of Toshniwal Brothers Pvt Ltd when his services were terminated with effect from 28th July 1969
He raised an industrial dispute and on 3rd July 1970 the Lt Governor of Delhi referred the dispute for adjudication to the Additional Labour Court Delhi under sections 101c and 125 of the Industrial Disputes Act
The dispute referred for adjudication to the Labour Court was Whether the termination of services of Shri DP Maheshwari is illegal andor unjustified and if so to what relief is he entitled and what directions are necessary in this respect  The Management straightaway questioned the reference by filing Writ petition No 159 of 1972 in the Delhi High Court
The writ petition was dismissed on 22nd May 1972
Thereafter the management raised a preliminary contention before the Labour Court that DP Maheshwari was not a workman  within the meaning of Section 2s of the Industrial Disputes Act and the reference was therefore incompetent
The Labour Court tried the question whether DP Maheshwari was a workman as defined in Section 2s of the Industrial Disputes Act as a preliminary issue
Both parties adduced oral and documentary evidence
After referring to the evidence of the employee s witnesses the Labour Court said Thus according to the evidence of the claimant s witnesses the claimant was employed mainly for clerical duties and he did discharge the same The Labour Court then referred to the evidence of the witnesses examined by the management and said Thus the said evidence falls far short of proving that the claimant was in fact discharging mainly Administrative of supervisory duties The Labour Court then proceeded to refer to the documents produced by the management and observed Thus the documents filed by the respondent do not go to show that the real nature of the duties discharged by the claimant was supervisory or administrative in nature The Labour Court next referred to what it considered to be an admission on the part of the management who had classified all their employees into three separate classes A B and C Class A described as Managerial  Class B described as Supervisory  and Class C described as Other Staff 
The name of DP Maheshwari was shown in Class C After reviewing the entire evidence the Labour Court finally recorded the following finding From the above discussion it is clear that the claimant s evidence shows that he was doing mainly 953 clerical work of maintaining certain registers preparing drafts and seeking instructions from the superiors and respondents  lawyers during the period of his services though designated Accounts Officer or officer in special duty or store purchase officer                   
As a result in my opinion it has to be held that the nature of the main duties being discharged by the claimant was clerical and not supervisory or administrative despite his designation as officer
Accordingly he has to be held to be a workman under section 2s of the Industrial Dispute Act
 The management was dissatisfied with the decision of the Labour Court on the preliminary issue
So they invoked the High Court s extra ordinary jurisdiction under article 226 of the Constitution
A learned single judge of the High Court by his judgment dated 12th July 1976 allowed the Writ Petition and quashed the order of the Labour Court and the reference made by the Government
A Division Bench of the High Court affirmed the decision of the Single Judge on 25th July 1980
The matter is now before us at the instance of the workman who obtained special leave to appeal under article 136 on 4th April 1983
The services of the workman were terminated on 28th July 1969
A year later the dispute was referred to the Labour Court for adjudication
Thirteen years thereafter the matter is still at the stage of decision on a preliminary question
In our view further comment is needless
Shri AK Gupta the learned counsel for the appellant submitted that the High Court literally exercised appellate powers and recorded findings of fact differing from those recorded by the Labour Court and this he complained had been done by an unfair reading of the order of the Labour Court and without the High Court itself considering a single item of evidence or document
We are afraid there is considerable force in Shri Gupta s criticism
Curiously enough the Learned Single Judge of the High Court affirmed the finding of the Labour Court that DP Maheshwari was not employed in a supervisory capacity
He said In the face of this material and the admitted hypothesis the conclusion that the respondent was not 954 mainly employed in a supervisory capacity is certainly a possible conclusion that may be arrived at by any Tribunal duly instructed in the law as to the manner in which the status of an employee may be determined
It is therefore not possible for this Court to disturb such a conclusion having regard to the limited admit of review of the impugned order Having so held the Learned Single Judge went on to consider whether the workman was discharging duties of a clerical nature
He found that it would be difficult to say that DP Maheswari was discharging routine duties of a clerical nature which did not involve initiative imagination creativity and a limited power of self direction  The Learned Single Judge did not refer to a single item of evidence in support of the conclusions thus recorded by him
He appeared to differ from the Labour Court on a question of fact on the basis of a generalisation without reference to specific evidence
No appellate court is entitled to do that less so a court exercising supervisory jurisdiction
Referring to the finding of the Labour Court that the workman was discharging mainly clerical duties the Learned Single Judge observed It is erroneous to presume as was apparently done by the Additional Labour Court that merely because the respondent did not perform substantially supervisory functions he must belong to the clerical category
 This was an unfair reading of the Labour Court s judgment
We have earlier extracted the relevant findings of the Labour Court
The Labour Court not only found that the workman was not performing supervisory functions but also expressly found that the workman was discharging duties of a clerical nature
The Division Bench which affirmed the judgment of the Learned Single Judge also read the judgment of the Labour Court in a similar unfair fashion and observed
 It is no doubt true that the Labour Court held that the appellant s evidence showed that he was doing mainly clerical work
As we read the order as a whole it appears that in arriving at this conclusion the Labour Court was greatly influenced by the fact that the appellant was not employed in a supervisory capacity
 We have already pointed out that the Labour Court did not infer that the appellant was discharging duties of a clerical nature from the mere circumstance that he was not discharging supervisory functions
The Labour Court considered the entire evidence and recorded a positive finding that the appellant was 955 discharging duties of a clerical nature
The finding was distinct from the finding that the appellant was not discharging supervisory function as claimed by the company
We would further like to add that the circumstance that the appellant was not discharging supervisory functions was itself a very strong circumstance from which it could be legitimately inferred that he was discharging duties of a clerical nature
If the Labour Court had drawn such an inference it would have been well justified in doing so
But as we said the Labour Court considered the entire evidence and recorded a positive finding that the workman was discharging duties of a clerical nature
The Division Bench we are sorry to say did not consider any of the evidence considered by the Labour Court and yet characterised the conclusion of the Labour Court as perverse
The only evidence which the Division Bench considered was that of MWIShri KK Sabharwal and under the impression that the Labour Court had not considered the evidence of KK Sabharwal the Division Bench observed
The non reference to the said evidence while discussing the point in issue would clearly vitiate the order to the Labour Court
 This was again incorrect since we find that the Labour Court did consider the evidence of MWI fully
Shri GB Pai Learned Counsel for the company drew our attention to the qualifications of the appellant and certain letters written by him to the Managing Director and argued that the qualifications and the letters indicated that the appellant was discharging duties not of a clerical nature but those of a senior executive closely in the confidence of the Managing Director
We are enable to agree with Mr Pai
First we are not prepared to go behind the finding of fact arrived at by the Labour Court which certainly was based on relevant evidence and next all that we can say from the qualifications and the letters is that the appellant was occasionally deputed by the Managing Director to undertake some important missions
The question is what were his main duties and not whether he was occasionally entrusted with other work
On that question the clear finding of the Labour Court is that he was mainly discharging duties of a clerical nature
We are clearly of the opinion that the High Court was totally unjustified in interfering with the order of the Labour Court under article 226 of the Constitution
We set aside the judgments of the Learned Single Judge and the Division Bench of the Delhi High 956 Court restore the order of the Additional Labour Court and direct the Additional Labour Court to dispose of the reference within a period of three months from the date of communication of this order to that Court
That appellant is entitled to his costs which we stipulate at Rupees five thousand
HLC Appeal allowed


Summary:
An industrial dispute concerning the termination of services of the appellant in 1969 was referred for adjudication by the Labour Court under sections 10 1 c and 12 5 of the Industrial Disputes Act in the year 1970
The Management of the company in which he was employed questioned the reference itself by filing a petition under article 226 and when it was rejected the Management raised a preliminary contention before the Labour Court that the appellant was not a workman  and therefore the reference was incompetent
The Labour Court after a detailed and careful examination of the oral and documentary evidence produced by both the appellant and the Management came to the conclusion that the appellant was a workman  under section 2 s of the Act as he was employed mainly for clerical duties
This finding was challenged by the Management once again by filing a petition under article 226 and a Single Judge of the High Court allowed the same and quashed the order of the Labour Court as well as the reference made by the Government
On his appeal having been rejected by a Division Bench of the High Court the appellant approached this Court under article 136
Allowing the appeal  HELD The nature of jurisdiction under article 226 is supervisory and not appellate while that under article 136 is primarily supervisory but the Court may exercise all necessary appellate powers to do substantial justice
In the exercise of such jurisdiction neither the High Court nor this Court is required to be too astute to interfere with the exercise of jurisdiction by special tribunals at interlocutory stages and on preliminary issues
951 G H Tribunals like Industrial Tribunals are constituted to decide expeditiously special kinds of disputes and their jurisdiction to so decide is not to be stifled by all manner of preliminary objections and journeyings up and down
Tribunals and Courts who are requested to decide preliminary questions must 950 ask themselves whether such threshold part adjudication is really necessary and whether it will not lead to other woeful consequences
There was a time when it was thought prudent and wise to decide preliminary issues first
But the time appears to have arrived for a reversal of that policy
It is better that tribunals particularly those entrusted with the task of adjudicating Labour disputes where delay may lead to misery and jeopardise industrial peace should decide all issues in dispute at the same time without trying some of them as preliminary issues
Nor should High Courts in the exercise of their jurisdiction under article 226 stop proceedings before a Tribunal so that a preliminary issues may be decided by them
Neither the jurisdiction of the High Court under article 226 nor the jurisdiction of this Court under Art 136 may be allowed to be exploited by those who can well afford to wait to the detriment of those who can ill afford to wait by dragging the latter from Court to Court for adjudication of peripheral issues avoiding decision on issues more vital to them
Articles 226 and 136 are not meant to be used to break the resistance of workmen in this fashion
951 F C D The instant case relates to a dispute originating in 1969 and referred for adjudication in 1970 which is still at the stage of decision of a preliminary objection
The Labour Court considered the entire evidence and recorded a positive finding that appellant who was discharging duties of a clerical nature was a workman 
The Single Judge of the High Court did not refer to a single item of evidence while reversing the finding of the Labour Court
He appeared to differ from the Labour Court on a question of fact on the basis of a generalisation without reference to specific evidence
The Division Bench which affirmed the judgment of the Single Judge also read the judgment of the Labour Court in a similar unfair fashion and did not consider any of the evidence considered by the Labour Court and yet characterised the conclusion of the Labour Court as perverse
No appellate Court is entitled to do that less so a Court exercising supervisory jurisdiction
951 C 953 B 954 C D 955 C