Judgement

RAMASWAMI, J. : This appeal is brought, by special leave, from the award of the Industrial Tribunal, Andhra Pradesh dated January 18, 1964 in Industrial Dispute No. 33 of 1963 and published in the Gazette of India No.6 dated February 8, 1964.

2. K. Veeranna was employed as a Clerk by the Syndicate Bank Ltd. (hereinafter called the Bank ) in the Vijayawada branch. An order was made on May 2, 1963 for the transfer or Veeranna from Vijayawada to a new branch of the Bank which was to open at Banganpalli. Veeranna refused to join duty at Banganpalli and applied for leave on medical grounds. Veeranna continued to remain on such leave till December 12, 1963 when the Bank had to post one Chandrashekhar from the Nandyal branch to the Banganpalli branch in place of Veeranna. In June, 1963 Veeranna was elected as Joint Treasurer of the Andhra Pradesh unit of the respondent s Union. Veeranna claimed that he was entitled to exemption from transfer under the Sastry Award and the dispute was referred for adjudication by the Government of India under S. 10(1)(d) of the Industrial Disputes Act to the Industrial Tribunal Hyderabad. The issue was:

"Whether the transfer of K. Veeranna a workman of Canara Industrial and Syndicate Bank Ltd., from Vijayawada to Banganpalli is justified and if not, to what relief is the workman entitled?

3. After hearing the evidence adduced by the parties the Industrial Tribunal decided the issue in favour of the respondent s Union and held that the transfer of Veeranna was prompted by mala fide considerations and, therefore, he was entitled to be retained at Vijayawada.

4. On behalf of the appellant Mr. Setalvad put forward the argument that the finding of the Tribunal is perverse and is not supported by any evidence and that the award of the Tribunal may, therefore, be set aside as being defective in law. In our opinion, the argument of Mr. Setalvad is well founded and must be accepted as correct. The Tribunal has stated, in the first place, that the order of transfer was mala fide because the Bank had framed charges against Veeranna regarding a scheme of pigmy collections and the transfer was an attempt to victimise Veeranna for the part he had taken in the dispute between the Bank and the employees in this connection. It appears that the Bank had framed charges against Veeranna in September, 1962 and the dispute about the pigmy collections arose because the Reserve Bank of India, acting under the provisions of the Banking Companies Act, objected to the payment of allowance to the employees of the Bank by virtue of the Deposit Scheme and therefore the Bank had to suspend the collection of deposits by members of its staff. It appears that Veeranna refused to surrender the Collection Cards. etc. though he was asked to do so twice by the Bank by notice in writing. After the framing of the charges on November 29, 1962 for indiscipline an enquiry was held by the Bank and the charges were found proved against Veeranna. But the significant fact is that Veeranna was subsequently pardoned by the Bank and no action was taken against him. Veeranna himself admitted in his deposition as follows:

"There was a domestic enquiry and after the enquiry the recommendation was that I shall be dismissed but the Managing Director pardoned me .

It is, therefore, clear that the dispute concerning pigmy deposits was settled between the Bank and the workmen on January 20, 1963 on which date the parties to the settlement agreed to refer the dispute to the Industrial Tribunal. It is far-fetched to say that there is any connection between that dispute and the order of transfer made on May 2, 1963. The second reason given by the Tribunal is that Veeranna was Joint Treasurer of the Provincial unit of the All India Union and the transfer was made by the Bank as the Bank wanted to victimise Veeranna and to deprive the Union of his services as an office-bearer of the Union. But it is the admitted position that Veeranna was elected to the of