Judgment

DAS GUPTA, J. : The two main questions raised in this appeal against an award of the Industrial Tribunal, Ernakulam, directing payment of three months basic wages as bonus to the staff as well as to their workers over and above three months bonus already paid are:-firstly, whether the Tribunal was wrong in rejecting the appellant s case that some portion of the reserve has been used as working capital and thus rejecting the claim for interest on the amount so alleged to have been used; and secondly whether an unduly large portion of the available surplus has been given to the workmen. The net profit according to the profit and loss account was Rs. 3,51,918 and the statutory depreciation was Rs. 3,16,810. During the year a sum of Rs. 3 lakhs had been paid to M/s. Malabar Industrial Syndicae the Managing Agents by way of compensation for the premature termination of their agency and for their loss of office as Managing Agents for the unexpired term in full and final settlement of their claims & the question arose whether any portion of this should be added back in calculating the gross profit. Before the Tribunal, however, the employer agreed that for the sake of industrial