The Industrial Tribunal and the Labour Appellate Tribunal have the discretion to determine the appropriate method of computation of dearness allowance, considering the circumstances of the case.

Judgement

GOVINDA MENON J. - This appeal is by special leave against the decision of the Labour Appellate Tribunal of India, Calcutta, which modified the award, passed by the Industrial Tribunal, Calcutta, in the matter of a dispute referred to it by the Government of West Bengal for adjudication with regard to the rates of dearness allowance for clerks and Depot cashiers, employed by the Calcutta Tramways Co. Ltd, numbering about 600, out of a total of 10,000 workmen. Disputes having arisen between the workmen of the Calcutta Tramways Co. Ltd. (which may hereafter be called "The Company") on the one hand, and the employers on the other, relating to the dearness allowance payable to the workmen, there were two previous awards, one dated 16-5-1947, by Sri S. N. Guha Roy, and the other dated 27-10-1948, by Sri P. K. Sircar. Both of these awards related to all the employees of the Company and not to the clerks and Depot cashiers alone. Subsequently a reference was made by the West Bengal Government on l3-6-1951, concerning a dispute relating to the dearness allowance of the workman of the Company, excluding clerks and Depot cashiers. There was an award and an appeal, and in that appeal the Appellate Tribunal increased the dearness allowance by Rs. 7- 8-0 for workmen in the pay ranges below Rs. 50 and up to the pay range of Rs. 250 and by a flat rate of Rs. 5 in the higher pay ranges taking the cost of living index of the workmen class at 370 points.

2. In the present award, which relates to the clerks and the Depot cashiers alone, the Industrial Tribunal gave Rs. 47-8-0 as dearness allowance for a pay range of Rs. 51 to Rs. 100 and provided for a progressive increase of Rs. 5 for each slab of Rs. 50 in the pay range. The Appellant Tribunal increased the amounts so awarded by Rs. 2-8-0 more than what was granted to the other workmen of the Company. The cost of living index for the middle class families had been fixed by an investigating body of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce during the relevant year at 382 points, whereas the index in the case of working class was fixed at 370 points. The increased amount awarded for the various pay ranges and shown in the decision of the Labour Appellate Tribunal which need not be repeated again, was founded on these cost of living indices though the amount was not the same as recommended by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce.

3. Before the Labour Appellate Tribunal as well as the Industrial Tribunal, the claim put forward on behalf of the clerks and Depot cashiers was that the dearness allowance should be on the same rates as decided upon by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce of which the company is a member and no difference should have been made between the dearness allowance recommended by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and that to be awarded by the Industrial Tribunal. In fact, what was urged was that the recommendation of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce ought to have been accepted in its entirety for the reason not only that the Company, namely the middle class member of the Chamber but also that the class of persons namely the middle classes for whom the recommendation was intended, includes clerks and Depot cashiers of the Company as well, and the same having been accepted by the Mercantile Tribunal which dealt with the dearness allowance payable to the employees of the mercantile firms in Calcutta, the Industrial Tribunal, as well as the Labour Appellate Tribunal, should have followed the same. The learned Judges of the Appellate Tribunal held that those recommendations were made to the merchantile firms where the workmen consist practically of the clerical and subordinate staff as opposed Tramways Company where the large percentage of workmen belong to other categories, the clerks and Depot cashiers being only a small minority, though they found that the cost of living index found by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce should be accepted as the criterion for awarding the increased dearness allowance in