HP High Court: In referring industrial dispute, function of govt administrative

Vijay Arora

Shimla, April 1

The function of an appropriate government while dealing with the question of making a reference of an industrial dispute under Section 10 (1) of the Industrial Disputes Act is administrative in nature and not a judicial or quasi judicial function.

The HP High Court held this while dealing with a question referred to Division Bench on the issue whether on raising of an industrial dispute, the appropriate government has to merely act as a post office and is compelled by law to send the reference for adjudication to the labour court or whether it could examine the facts of the case at that stage itself and refuse to refer it on the grounds of delay, stale claims, non-existence of the alive dispute.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq, Justice Ajay Mohan Goel and Justice Sandeep Sharma laid down the guidelines . It held that “the delay by itself does not denude the appropriate government of its power to examine advisability of making the reference of an industrial dispute but the delay will certainly be relevant for deciding the basic question whether or not the industrial dispute “exists”, which also includes the decision to find out whether on account of delay the dispute has ceased to exist or has ceased to be alive or has become stale or has faded away”.

The Bench clarified that “whether or not a dispute is alive or has become stale or non-existent will always depend on the facts of each case and no rule of universal application can be laid down for the same”.

It held that “in cases where the appropriate government, while examining the question of making a reference of an industrial dispute, arrives at a decision that the question that on account of delay the dispute has ceased to exist or alive will require elaborate examination of the evidence.”

The Bench held that “even when a reference is made by the appropriate government in a case after huge and enormous unexplained delay, the industrial court will be entitled to return the reference as court judiciously exercises its wide jurisdiction under Section 11-A of the Industrial Disputes Act and is under obligation to consider whether in such a situation any relief at all can be granted to the workman”.

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