Case: Yovan Vs. Management Of India Cements Ltd

2. The appellant is a union of workmen employed in the establishments of Respondent 1 at Sankarnagar in the State of Tamil Nadu. Respondent 1 is a company with major financial inputs by various financial institutions in the country. Respondents 3 to 14 are contractors who were employed by Respondent 1 to do various jobs. At the relevant time these respondents employed 300 and odd workers. The services of these workers were terminated. They claimed to have worked continuously for a period of over 10 years. Inasmuch as they were neither paid the same wages nor were they allowed the same working conditions allowed by the principal employer, namely, Respondent 1 to its own workmen. The appellant union raised demands to make contract labour permanent as mandated by law by removing the intermediary contractors. The demands were not complied with. Therefore, a dispute was raised. Conciliation proceedings took place on various dates. Ultimately on September 22, 1986 a failure report by Joint Commissioner of Labour, Madras, was submitted. On consideration of the report and the other relevant facts a notification was issued by the Government of Tamil Nadu on September 23, 1987 under Section 10(1)(c) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) that the dispute between the union and the management of India Cements contractors relating tot of 300 workers be referred for adjudication to the Labour Court, Madurai. Pending adjudication of main dispute, the management (Respondent 1) preferred an interlocutory application for determination as a preliminary issue that the reference by the State of Tamil Nadu is bad since the appropriate authority in relation to the cement industry is the Central Government. The Principal Labour Court, Madurai, allowed the application by the impugned order dated August 28, 1991 and terminated the proceedings. It is under these circumstances the special leave petition came to be filed after a delay of 223 days. Notices were issued on September 25, 1992 both on the SLP as well as on the application for condonation of delay

Court's reasoning:
6. We need not dwell at length in view of the notification dated December 8, 1977 of the Union of India and the stand taken in the, the relevant portion of which is extracted below"The Government of India had issued Notification No. SO 757(E) dated November 8, 1977 wherein it is stated that under Section 2(a) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, the Central Government has specified (for the purpose of the said) the controlled industry engaged in the manufacture and production of cement, which has been declared controlled industry under Section 2 of the Industrial (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951. By virtue of the aforesaid notification the Central Government becomes appropriate Government under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, in respect of cement industry. A true copy of the aforesaid notification dated November 8, 1977 is annexed herewith as AnnexureIn the present special leave petition pertaining to regularisation of certain workmen working in the cement factory, engaged in the processes connected with transfer of cement, the Central Government as well as the State Governments are the appropriate Governments under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 in view of the issuance of notifications dated December 8, 1977 under Section 39 of the Industrial Disputes Act mentioned above."