Case: United Commercial Bank Ltd Vs. Secretary, U.P. Bank Employees Union &amp; Others

2. There was an order of the Government of India datedreferring, under cl. (c) of(1) of S. 10, Industrial Disputes Act. 1947 (14 of 1947), an industrial dispute to the Industrial Tribunal at Calcutta for adjudication. This order refers to two prior orders of the Government of India dated9, which had already referred certain disputes; but we are not concerned with those prior orders now.3. The relevant terms of the present order may be set out hereunder :"AND WHEREAS a further industrial dispute has arisen afteror is apprehended between the banking companies mentioned in Sch. I annexed hereto and their employees in respect of matters specified in Sch. II hereto annexed :AND WHEREAS the Central Government considers it desirable to refer the further dispute for adjudication :NOW, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by cl, (c) of(1) of S. 10, Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947), the Central Government is pleased to refer the said dispute for adjudication to the Industrial Tribunal at Calcutta, constituted under S. 7 of the said Act."4. Sch II comprises two items, and underneath the second item is the note,"This list is not intended to be exhaustive."The first item is"Retrenchment, discharge, or dismissal of workmen afterpursuance of the reference, which was numbered 21 of 1950, the Industrial Tribunal at Calcutta gave directions onto the appellant Bank on the one hand and their employees on the other to file their statement of claims concerning the matters referred to adjudication onThe General Secretary of the U.P.P. Bank Employee Union filed a petition before the Tribunal oncomplaining of the victimisation of six employees who are respondents 2 to 7 in this appeal. It was alleged in the petition that their services were improperly terminated by the adoption of a device, namely, that of getting the new treasurer appointed by the Bank to say that he had no. confidence in these employees, whom he did not know previously, and that he wanted them to be substituted by his own men. The other allegations made in the petition are irrelevant for purposes of this appeal. The Bank contended that they were not cases of victimisation at all but of termination of services as a sequence to the resignation of the treasurership of the Agra Branch by the treasurers, Messrs. Radhakishan Baijnath which rendered the closure of the Branch necessary for want of a suitable new treasurer. The Bank repudiated the allegation of the Union that the employees were discharged from service because of their trade union activities.5. The Industrial Tribunal at Calcutta went into the question thus raised, and held that the respondents were employees of the Bank and not nominees of the treasurer, and that the order of their discharge on the mere ground that the new treasurer Sri Chundrimani was not willing to stand guarantee for them was bad in law. It directed their reinstatement with three months back pay and allowances. The Bank carried the matter on appeal before the Appellate Tribunal but failed.

Court's reasoning:
7. What exactly is the meaning of the words "apprehended dispute" occurring in S. 10, Industrial Disputes Act, whose apprehension is referred to in theGovernments or the parties or any one elses, what is to happen if the apprehension does not crystallise into an actual dispute before the Tribunal enters on its duties as regards the reference, is the Tribunal bound even then to make note of the mere apprehension and proceed to decide a dispute notwithstanding the fact that the parties say that there is no. dispute between themare interesting questions of wide import ; but they do not fall to be decided in this appeal for a simple reason which we shall state presently. The point as to jurisdiction was not taken by the Bank before the Industrial Tribunal. Had it been raised, the Court could have investigated whether a dispute had actually arisen on the date of reference or was at least apprehended. As a matter of fact, it is urged for the employees that on the Banks own showing, a dispute had arisen much earlier about the likely termination of the services of the respondents on the ground of the old treasurer resigning and the difficulty of finding a new treasurer rendering it necessary to close the Agra Branch; reference was made in this connection to Annexure II at page 70 of the paper Book setting out the application datedof the Bank to the Tribunal signed by the General Manager. It will thus be seen that the point as to jurisdiction is not a pure question of law; it is mingled with facts. The Bank cannot, in the circumstances, be allowed to raise it for the first time at the stage of appeal.8. There is no substance in the second point. It was not raised in the application for special leave to this Court. Whether a discharged employee is to be reinstated in service, or whether compensation would be an adequate relief, is a matter of discretion. The original Tribunal considered reinstatement proper; and with this view the Appellate Tribunal agreed. There are no. reasons for interference by this Court with the exercise of that discretion.