1 FARAD CONTINUATION SHEET NO. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY APPELLATE SIDE NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR WRIT PETITION NO. 5476 /2007 (Shri Satyanarayan Chotu Singral Vs. Union of India & ors.) Appeal District : Application No. of 200 Writ petition Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, appearances, Court's orders or directions Court's or Judge's orders and Registrar's orders. CORAM : Smt. Vasanti A. Naik, J. DATED : 17 th NOVEMBER, 2008. Heard Shri V.P. Marpakwar for the petitioner, Shri Bangde for respondent nos. 1 and 3, and Ms. Tanna for respondent no.2. By this petition, the petitioner impugns the order passed by the respondent no.1 on 14/2/2007, holding that the dispute could not be referred for adjudication under Section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act as the services of the petitioner were terminated in the year 1988 and he had sought to raise the dispute in the year 2005, virtually after lapse of 17 years, without any adequate reason for the delay. I have considered the submissions made on behalf of the parties and have also perused the impugned order dated 14/2/2007. It is not in dispute that a dispute was sought to be raised by the petitioner in the year 2005 though his services were 2 terminated in the year 1988. It was observed by the respondent no.1 and rightly so, that there was no justification whatsoever for a long delay of 17 years. In this background, the respondent no.1 held that no dispute subsisted in the matter and the matter could not have been referred under Section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act. The order is in conformity with the settled position of law as laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the cases reported in (2000) 2 SCC 461 and (2000) 1 SCC 371, that when there is no industrial dispute in existence, the appropriate Government lacks power to make a reference. It is a well settled position of law that a dispute which is stale, cannot be a subject matter of the reference under Section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act. No fault can, therefore, be found with the impugned order dated 14/2/2007. For the aforesaid reasons, the writ petition is dismissed with no order as to costs. JUDGE RMP