IMPORTANT POINT
Board constituted under Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Misc. Provisions Act will not have jurisdiction to decide a reference of journalist of retrenchment which has to be decided by Labour Court.

ORDER

The appellant challenges the judgment of the Patna High Court in LPA No. 51 of 1998(R). The appellant was running a printing press and was publishing a daily newspaper by name Awaz . The respondent was a Reporter of the newspaper at Ranchi. According to the appellant, he closed down the printing press and stopped the publication of the said newspaper and, therefore, the services of the respondent were not required and he was retrenched from service with effect from 1.7.89. The respondent contended that his retrenchment was effected without complying with the provisions contained in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and he sought a reference under that Act. The appellant did not appear before the Labour Court to contest the proceedings. The Labour Court at Ranchi, in Ref. Case No. 12 of 1992, passed an award directing the appellant to reinstate the respondent with back wages. According to the appellant, he came to know of the award only on 28.9.1994 and thereafter he filed a writ petition before the Patna High Court. Learned Single Judge dismissed the Writ Petition mainly on the ground of delay. The appellants contention that the provisions contained in the I.D. Act had no application was rejected by the learned Single Judge. Aggrieved by the same, the appellant preferred an LPA and the Division Bench also found that the pleas raised by the appellant were not maintainable and the LPA was dismissed. Aggrieved by the same, the present appeal is filed.

2. We heard the appellant s Counsel. The main contention urged by the appellant s Counsel is that respondent was a Working Journalist and, therefore, the award passed by the Labour Court under the provisions of the I.D. Act was without jurisdiction and that provisions contained in the Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 are applicable in his case and the Board constituted under the provisions of the said Act alone had jurisdiction to deal with the question of retrenchment or removal of the newspaper employees or Working Journalists from service. The appellant s Counsel relied on Section 3 and Section 11 of the Act which read as follows:-

"3. Act 14 of 1947 to apply to working journalists-

(1) The provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, as in force for the time being, shall subject to the modification specified in sub-section (2), apply to, or in relation to, working journalists as they apply to, or in relation to, workmen within the meaning of that Act.

(2) Section 25F of the aforesaid Act, in its application to working journalists, shall be construed as if in clause (a) thereof, for the period of notice referred to therein in relation to the retrenchment of a workman, the following periods of notice in relation to the retrenchment of a working journalist had been substituted namely-

(a) six months, in the case of an editor, and

(b) three months, in the case of any other working journalist.

11. Powers and procedure of the Board.-

(1) Subject to the provisions, contained in sub-section (2), the Board may exercise all or any of the powers which an Industrial Tribunal constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, exercises for the adjudication of an industrial dispute referred to it and shall, subject to the provisions contained in this Act, and the rules, if any, made thereunder, have power to regulate its own procedure.

(2) Any representations made to the Board and any documents furnished to it by way of evidence shall be open to inspection on payment of such fee as may be prescribed, by any person interested in the matter.

(3) If, for any reason, a vacancy occurs in the office of Chairman or any other member of the Board, the Central Government shall fill the vacancy by appointing another person thereto in accordance with the provisions of Section 9 and any proceeding may be continued before the Board so reconstituted from the stage at which the vacancy occu