Judgment

GAJENDRAGADKAR J. : This appeal by special leave is directed against the award passed by the Industrial Court, Bombay, by which a scheme for gratuity has been framed in favour of the workmen represented by the respondent, Textile Labour Association, Ahmedabad, who are employed by the textile mills in Ahmedabad including the twenty appellants mills before us. In order to appreciate the points of law raised by the appellants in the present appeal we ought to state at the outset the material facts leading to the present dispute in which the impugned scheme for gratuity has been framed. On June 13, 1950, the respondent gave notice under Sec. 42 (2) of the Bombay Industrial Relations Act XI of 1947 hereinafter called the Act) intimating to the Mill Owners Association at Ahmedabad (hereinafter called the Association) that it desired a change as specified in the annexure to the communication. The annexure showed that the respondent wanted a change in that a scheme for gratuity should be framed wherever services of an employee are terminated by the mills on grounds of old-age, invilidity, incapacity or natural death. It was further claimed that the payment of gratuity in the said