Case: Onkar Nath Misra Vs. State Of Haryana

The appellant herein and some others were charged for certain misconduct of gheraoing some senior officers of the Company for long hours. It is also stated that during the gherao one of the officers, Manjeet Singh, received injuries.On a reference being made in regard to the dismissals including that of the appellant, the IndustrialI Faridabad by its award dated 24th of April, 2001 rejected the claim of the workmen, except in regard to one Pradeep Sharda whose claim was allowed. In regard to other workmen including the appellant herein the Labour Court believed the evidence of the Management witness Pritam Singh as also other materials produced as5. On that basis the Labour Court came to the specific conclusion that the Management has established that the workmen named therein including the appellant took an active part in the gherao of H.S. Dhaliwal the then(Works) and also caused injuries to Manjeet Singh one of the officers who was also gheraoed. Having come to the said conclusion and taking into consideration the gravity of the offence the Labour Court also came to the conclusion that the punishment of dismissal was justified on the facts and circumstances of the case.3. The award of the Labour Court came to be challenged by the appellant and one Megh Singh by way of two writ petitions before the Punjab and Haryana High Court which by a common judgment dismissed both the writ petitions. The High Court in the course of its order agreed with the Labour Court that the evidence produced by the Management marked as Ext.as also the documentary evidence Ext.15 coupled with the evidence of Shri B.K. Uppalclearly established the misconduct alleged against the writ petitioners beforeHigh Court agreed with the finding of the Labour Court that the case of the petitioners before it and Pradeep Sharma did not stand on the same footing inasmuch as from the material produced before the Labour Court it was clearly that Pradeep Sharma was falsely involved, while the misconduct alleged against the writ petitioners had been duly established. It also did not accept the argument of the learned counsel for the petitioners that the punishment was in any manner disproportionate to the misconduct proved.4. Against the common judgment in the two writ petitions, referred to herein above, two SLPs. were preferred before this Court and this Court while entertaining the same at the preliminary stage granted leave in respect of the present appeal only and rejected the other petition. Therefore, Civil Appeal No. 3670 of 2003 pertaining to the Onkar Nath Misra is before us for consideration.

Reasoning:
6. We have perused the order of the Labour Court and the reasoning given therein which was reconsidered by the High Court and we are in agreement with the finding of the tribunal as well as by the High Court that from the material on record it is established that the appellant did take part in the gherao of the officers in which injury was caused to one of them.