Judgement

BHAGWATI. J. - These two appeals by Special Leave arise out of an order of the Labour Appellate Tribunal of India, Lucknow Bench, by which it dismissed the application of the appellant under S.22 of Industrial Disputes (Appellate Tribunal) Act, 1950, hereinafter referred to as the Act, for permission to dismiss the respondents from its employ and allowed the application of the respondents under S.23 of the Act for reinstatement.

2. The respondent are 76 employees of the appellant, a limited company Sugar Mills situated in village Chitauni in the district of Deoria and were working in the engineering department of the mills in the mill house, boiling house and the workshop sections. There were disputes between the appellant its workmen and, on the date in question, i.e. 27th May 1952, there was pending before the Labour Appellate Tribunal an appeal which was registered as Cal. 101/51. It appears that one Motilal Singh, an employee of the appellant, had been dismissed by it some time prior thereto and he had been inciting the workmen to make common cause with him, and, at a meeting held the previous night, some sort of action had been decided upon. When the workmen of the appellant entered the mills on the morning of 27th May 1952, these 76 workmen, though they entered their respective sections of the engineering department, did not commence any work from 7 a.m. as they should have done. The sectional engineers incharge asked these workman as to why they did not commence their work and became aware of their intention to resort to a tools-down strike. They reported the fact to the Chief Engineer who sent a slip to the General Manager informing him that the workers had gone on a tools down strike. The General Manager thereupon personally went to the workshop, mill house and the boiling house and asked these workmen not to resort to such strike but the latter did not pay any heed p73 to his advice. The General Manager then asked the Chief Engineer to persuade these workmen to commence the work, give them time for about 2 hours till 10.30 a.m. and report to him if, inspite of his persuasions, they did not commence work. The persuasions of the Chief Engineer and also of the section engineers proved of no avail and the 76 workmen persisted in their attitude with the result that the section engineers made their reports to the General Manager through the Chief Engineer giving the names of the workmen belonging to their respective sections who had resorted to the tools-down strike with effect from 7 a.m. that day. These reports were endorsed by the Chief Engineer and passed on to the General Manager who, in his turn, passed an order at about 10-30 a.m. suspending these 76 workmen till further orders. The order for suspension was communicated to these workmen through their sectional heads and was also pasted on the notice board of the mills. There was a recess between 1 a.m. and 11 p.m. and when the gates were opened at l p.m. these 76 workmen inspite of the warning of the gatekeepers and Jemadar to the contrary, rushed into the mills entered their respective sections and adopted a threatening attitude. The sectional engineers made reports to the General Manager in regard to this occurrence and these reports also were endorsed by the Chief Engineer and passed on by him to the General Manager. The situation which was created by these workmen by forcibly entering their respective sections and continuing there threatening violence was explosive and the management had to call in the police in order to avert violence and damage to the property. The police came in at 5 p.m. and order appears to have been resorted. There was no untoward incident that day but the management appears to have viewed the situation with seriousness and approached the Regional Conciliation Officer the next day in order to ask for advice in regard to the dismissal of these workmen. The Regional Conciliation Officer, however, pointed out to the General Manager th