Judgement

VENKATARAMA AYYAR, J. - The appellant is a company registered under the Indian Companies Act, and owns a factory called Modi Oil Mills in the district of Meerut. The respondents are workmen employed in the Mills. The business of the Mills consists in the Manufacture of oils and paints. On 12-7-1954 the management put up the following notice:

"Notice is hereby given that due to non-availability of groundnut seed and neem seed at the parity with the ruling prices of the groundnut oil and neem oil, the Management is reluctantly compelled to close the Groundnut Crushing Section and Neem Section till the next groundnut season and thus the workers in the attached list are surplus and their services are laid off with effect from 14th July, 1954.

Workers, thus affected, shall be paid compensation according to Industrial Disputes (Amendment) Act, 1953, subject to conditions laid therein. It is further notified that the time of the attendance as provided in S. 25 (D) and (E) shall be 10 A. M. for all the laid off workers."

2. Pursuant to this notice, 142 workmen mentioned therein, being the respondents in this appeal, were laid off from 14-7-1954. On 26-7-1954 the workmen acting throug