Civil Miscellaneous Petition No 19065 of 1987
IN Civil Appeal No 1713 of 1987
From the Judgment and order dated 1161987 in Writ Petition No 389 of 1981 F D Damania Atul Tewari and Ms Bina Gupta for the petitioners 
The following order of the Court was delivered O R D E R The certificate on the basis of which this appeal is filed is issued by a learned Single Judge of the High Court of Bombay under Article 134A of the Constitution in respect of an order passed by him in a Writ Petition in which the employees of the State Bank of India had questioned the right of the management to fix the hours of work and the hours of recess and its right to stagger the period of recess and had prayed for other consequential reliefs
The learned Single Judge allowed the petition following certain earlier decisions of the High Court rendered by the Division Benches
He however proceeded to grant a certificate of fitness to file an appeal against his decision before this Court following an earlier order of a Division Bench granting such a certificate in respect of one of those earlier decisions
He issued the 155 certificate under Article 134A of the Constitution without referring to A the Article under which the appeal could be filed
Article 134A of the Constitution reads thus 134A
Every High Court passing or making a judgment decree final order or sentence referred to in clause  1 of article 132 or clause  1 of article 133 or clause  1 of article 134 a may if it deems fit so to do on its own motion and b shall if an oral application is made
by or on behalf of the party aggrieved immediately after the passing or making of such judgment decree final order or sentence determine as soon as may be after such passing or making the question whether a certificate of the nature referred to in clause  1 of article 132 or clause  1 of article 133 or as the case may be sub clause c of clause 1 of article 134 may be given in respect of that case
 The certificate contemplated under Article 134A of the Constitution can only be a certificate which is referred to in clause  1 of Article 132 or in clause  1 of Article 133 or in sub clause c of clause  1 of Article 134 of the Constitution
This is quite obvious from the language of Article 134A of the Constitution
This case does not fall either under Article 1321 or under sub clause c of Article 1341 as it neither involves a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of the Constitution nor it is a criminal proceeding
It can only fall
if at all under Article 1331 of the Constitution
Article 133 of the Constitution reads thus 133
1 An appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court from any judgment decree or final order in a civil proceeding of a High Court in the territory of India if the High Court certifies under Article 134A a that the case involves a substantial question of law of general importance and b that in the opinion of the High Court the said 156 question needs to be decided by the Supreme Court
2 Notwithstanding anything in article 132 any party appealing to the Supreme Court under clause  1 may urge as one of the grounds in such appeal that a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of this Constitution has been wrongly decided
3 Notwithstanding anything in this article no appeal shall unless Parliament by law otherwise provides lie to the Supreme Court from the judgment decree or final order of one Judge of a High Court
 Clause 3 of Article 133 says that notwithstanding anything in that Article no appeal shall unless Parliament by law otherwise provides lie to the Supreme Court from the judgment decree or final order of one Judge of the High Court
Before the introduction of Article 134A of the Constitution by the Forty fourth Amendment of L the Constitution there was no express provision in Articles 132 133 and 134 of the Constitution regarding the time and manner in which an application for a certificate under any of those articles could be made before the High Court
There was also a doubt as to the power of the High Court to issue a certificate suo motu under any of those articles
Article 134A was enacted to make good the said deficiencies
Article 134A does not constitute an independent provision under which a certificate can be issued
It is ancillary to Article 1321 Article 1331 and Article 1341c of the Constitution
That is the reason for the use of words if the High Court certifies under article 134A in Article 1321 and Article 1331 and for the use of words certifies under article 134A in Article 1341c
The High Court can issue a certificate only when it is satisfied that the conditions in Article 132 or Article 133 or Article 134 of the Constitution as the case may be are satisfied
In the instant case such a certificate could not have been issued by reason of clause 3 of Article 133 of the Constitution by the learned Single Judge
The fact that in a similar case a certificate had been issued by a Division Bench of the High Court consisting of two Judges in a case decided by the Division Bench did not empower the Single Judge to issue the certificate under Article 1331 of the Constitution in a case decided by him
The restriction placed by clause 3 of Article 133 of the Constitution could not be got over by relying upon the order of the Division Bench
157 We therefore revoke the certificate This petition of appeal A may however be treated as a Special Leave Petition under Article 136 of the Constitution and posted for preliminary hearing


Summary:
The employees of the State Bank of India filed a writ petition in the High Court questioning the right of the management to fix the hours of work and of recess and its right to stagger the period of recess and for other consequential reliefs
A Single Judge of the High Court allowed the petition following earlier decisions by the Division Bench of the same High Court and also granted a certificate of fitness under Article 134A of the Constitution to file an appeal in the Supreme Court following an earlier order of a Division Bench granting such a certificate in respect of one of those earlier decisions
Revoking the certificate this Court HELD The certificate contemplated under Article 134A of the Constitution can only be a certificate which is referred to in cl
1 of Article 132 or in cl
1 of Article 133 or in sub clause c of cl
1 of Article 134 of the Constitution
Article 134A does not constitute an independent provision under which a certificate can be issued
It is ancilliary to Articles 1321 1331 and 1341c
155E The High Court can issue a certificate only when it is satisfied that the conditions in Article 132 or Article 133 or Article 134 as the case may be are satisfied
156F The instant case does not fall either under Article 1321 or under sub clausec of Article 1341 as it neither involves a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of the Constitution nor is it a crimi 154 nal proceeding
It can only fall if at all under Article 1331 andtherefore the certificate could not have been issued by reason of cl3 of Article 133 of the Constitution
155E F The fact that in a similar case a certificate had been issued by a Division Bench of the High Court did not empower the Single Judge to issue the certificate under Article 1331 in a case decided by him
The restriction placed by cl
3 of Article 133 could not be got over by relying upon the order of the Division Bench
156G H The petition of appeal to be treated as Special Leave Petition under Article 136 of the Constitution and posted for preliminary hearing
157A