RESPONDENT: GUJARAT STEEL TUBES MAZDOOR SABHA DATE OF JUDGMENT19/11/1979 KRISHNAIYER, V.R. KRISHNAIYER, V.R. DESAI, D.A. KOSHAL, A.D. CITATION: 1980 AIR 1896 1980 SCR (2) 146 1980 SCC (2) 593 CITATOR INFO : E 1984 SC1805 (16) R 1992 SC 96 (14) ACT: Industrial Disputes Act, 1947Section 11AScope of Whether the arbitrator could exercise the power conferred on a Tribunal under section 11A of the Act and interfere with the punishment awarded by the management to the workmen. Constitution of India, 1950, Article 227Power of the High Court to interfere with the decision of the management and revise the punishment to the delinquent workmen. Model Standing orders made under Section 15(2) of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946M.S.Os. 23, 24 and 25 scope ofWhether the discharge en masse of workmen valid. Value vision of Indian Industrial Jurisprudence Constitution of India Articles 39, 41, 42, 43 43A and the Golden Rule for the Judicial resolution of an industrial dispute. HEADNOTE: The appellant manufactures steel tubes in the outskirts of Ahmedabad city. It started its business in 1960, went into production since 1964 and waggled from infancy to adulthood with smiling profits and growling workers, punctuated by smouldering demands, strikes and settlement until there brewed a confrontation culminating in a headon collision following upon certain unhappy happenings. A total strike ensued whose chain reaction was a wholesale termination of all employees followed by fresh recruitment of workmen defacto breakdown of the strike and dispute over restoration of the removed workmen. As per the last settlement between the management and the workmen of 4th August, 1972, it was not open to the workmen to resort to a strike till the expiry of a period of five years; nor could the management declare a lock out till then. Any dispute arising between the parties, according to the terms arrived at were to be sorted out through negotiation or, failing that by recourse to arbitration. The matter was therefore, referred to an arbitrator and the arbitrator by his award held the action cf the management warranted. The respondent challenged the decision of the arbitrator under Article 226/227 of the Constitution and the High Court of Gujarat reversed the award and substantially directed reinstatement. Hence the appeals both by the Management and the workmen. Dismissing the appeals and modifying the awards substantially, the Court ^ HELD: (By Majority) Per Iyer J. On behalf of D. A. Desai J. and himself. (i) The basic assumption is that the strike was not only illegal but also unjustified. [210 H] 147 (ii) The management did punish its 853 workmen when it discharged them for reasons of misconduct set out in separate but integrated proceedings; even though with legal finesse, the formal order was phrased in harmless verbalism. [211 A] (iii) The action taken under the general law or the standing orders, was illegal in the absence of individualised charge sheets, proper hearing and personalise punishment if found guilty. None of these steps having been taken, the discharge orders were still born. But, the management could, as in this case it did, offer to make out the delinquency of the employees and the arbitrator had, in such cases, the full jurisdiction to adjudge de novo both guilt and punishment. [211 BC] (iv) Section 11A of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 does take in an arbitrator too, and in this case, the arbitral reference, apart from section 11A is plenary in scope. [211 CD] (v) Article 226 of the Constitution, however restrictive in practice Is a power wide enough in all conscience, to be a friend in need when the summons comes in a crisis from a victim of injustice; and more importantly this extraordinary reserve power is unsheathed to grant final relief without necessary recourse to a remand. What the Tribunal may in its discretion do the High Court too under Article 226, can, if facts compel so. [211 DE] (vi) The Award, in the instant case, suffers from a fundamental flaw that it equates an illegal and unjustified strike with brozen misconduct by every workman without so much as identification of