HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE RAMESH RANGANATHAN WRIT PETITION No. 7402 of 2001 ORDER: Despite service of notice, neither is the second respondent present nor has any counsel entered appearance on his behalf. Heard Sri B.Mahender Reddy, Learned Counsel for the petitioner. The award of the Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court, Anantapur, in I.D.No.49 of 2000 dated 24.01.2001, is under challenge in this Writ Petition. Facts, in brief, are that the petitioner is a Society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. The second respondent was appointed on 29.09.1964 as an attender and, subsequently, promoted as a plumber in the petitioner- school. The age of retirement for non-teaching staff was 55 years in the petitioner-school. However, the Management was empowered to extend the services of an employee by one year beyond the age of 55 years. The second respondent was given one year extension and, consequently, retired from service on 01.04.1999 on attaining the age of 56 years. He was also paid all retiral benefits by cheque No.149631 dated 21.04.1999 for Rs.56,998.82ps./-. The second respondent raised a dispute, under Section 2- A(2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, contending that his premature retirement at the age of 56 years amounted to termination of his services and, under the model standing orders prescribed under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 (for short ‘Act 20 of 1946’), the age of retirement was 58 years. The Labour Court placed the onus of establishing the age of retirement as 55 years on the petitioner, who was the respondent before the Labour Court. The Labour Court relied on Act 20 of 1946 to hold that the second respondent was entitled to continue in service upto the age of 58 years and, since two years had elapsed, he was entitled for the difference of salary and other benefits for the said two year period. Aggrieved thereby, the present Writ Petition. Sri B.Mahender Reddy, Learned Counsel for the petitioner, would submit that, while the petitioner-school may well be an ‘industry’ within the meaning of Section 2(j) of the Industrial Disputes Act, it is not an ‘industrial establishment’ under Section 2(e) of Act 20 of 1946. Learned Counsel would further submit that, even otherwise, the model standing orders prescribed under Act 20 of 1946 stipulates the age of retirement/superannuation to be 55 years only in the absence of an agreement or settlement or award which is binding on the workman. According to the Learned Counsel, every employee who joins the service of an organisation is deemed to have entered into a contract of employment on an appointment order being issued in his favour and, since the order of appointment for all employees in the petitioner-school stipulates 55 years as the age of retirement, the Labour Court had erred in holding that, in view of the model standing orders which stipulates 58 years as the age of retirement, the respondent-workman was entitled to continue till then. Section 2(e) of the Act 20 of 1946 defines an ‘industrial or other establishment’ to mean: (a) tramway service, or motor transport service engaged in carrying passengers or goods or both by road for hire or reward; (aa) air transport service other than such service belonging to, or exclusively employed in the military, naval or air forces of the Union or the Civil Aviation Department of the Government of India;] (b) dock, wharf or jetty; (c) inland vessel, mechanically propelled; (d) mine, quarry or oilfield; (e) plantation; (f) workshop or other establishment in which articles are produced, adapted or manufactured, with a view to their use, transport or sale; (g) establishment in which any work relating to the construction, development or maintenance of buildings, roads, bridges or canals, or relating to operations connected with navigation, irrigation or the supply of water, or relating to the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity or any other form of power is being carried on; (h) any other establishment or class of establishments which the Central Government or a State Government may, having regard to the nature thereof, the need for protection of persons employed therein and other relevant circumstances, specify, by notification in the Official Gazette. It is evident from the aforesaid provision that the petitioner, an educational institution registered under the Societies Registration Act, is not an ‘industrial establishment’ under Act 20 of 1946. Since the model standing orders, prescribed under Act 20 of 1946, apply only in the case of an ‘industrial establishment’ to which the provisions of Act 20 of 1946 are applicable, the Labour Court has exceeded its jurisdiction in relying on the provisions of Act 20 of 1946 to hold that an employee working in a school, in the post of attender/plumber, is entitled to continue in service till he reaches the age of superannuation of 58 years though the rules of petitioner-school stipulate the age of retirement as 55 years. While the definition of an ‘industry’, under Section 2(j) of the Industrial Disputes Act, is no doubt wide, the definition of ‘industrial establishment’ under Act 20 of 1946 is limited only to those establishments specified therein. The petitioner is not one such. Since Act 20 of 1946 is not applicable to the petitioner-school, the model standing orders are also inapplicable. Even otherwise, an employee who joined the school and is issued an order of appointment must be presumed to have entered into a contract of employment with the school concerned, and to be governed by the rules and regulations of the school. The Labour Court has not disbelieved the contention of the petitioner-school that the age of superannuation, uniformly applicable to all the employees in school, is 55 years and can be extended by a period of only one more year i.e. upto the age of 56 years and the second respondent had been extended the said benefit. The award of the Labour Court suffers from a patent error of law apparent on the face of the record and is, accordingly, quashed. The Writ Petition is, accordingly, allowed. However, in the circumstances, without costs. RAMESH RANGANATHAN,J Date:02.12.2010 usd