JUDGMENT

Shivaraj V. Patil, J.-Leave granted.

2. The short and straight question, which arises for consideration is "whether a dispute is said to be pending before an Industrial Tribunal for the purpose of proviso to Section 33(2)(b) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (for short `the Act ) during the period when operation of the order of reference of dispute itself remained stayed."

3. In each one of these appeals appellant No. 1 is a company and appellant No. 2 is one of its shareholders. The BPL Group of Companies Karmikara Sangha (Union) had raised certain disputes on behalf of the workmen of the appellant companies. On failure of conciliation the disputes came to be referred by the Government for adjudication to the Industrial Tribunal, Bangalore (for short the Tribunal ). By order dated 26.2.1999 the aforesaid union, not being fully satisfied with the order of reference, filed writ petition No. 7355/99 in the High Court seeking a mandamus to the State Government for referring some more points/disputes raised by them. A learned single Judge of the High Court on 11.3.1999, at the stage of issuing notice for admission, passed the interim order in the following terms :-

"The operat