Judgment

WANCHOO, J. : These two appeals by special leave raise a common question and will be decided together. The appellants are proprietors of two bidi concerns. A reference was made by the Government of Madras of dispute between the appellants and their workmen with respect to three matters. In the present appeals however we are concerned with only one matter, namely, whether reduction of annas two in the wages of workers employed under the agents of the appellants was justified and to what relief the workers were entitled.

2. The contention of the appellants before the tribunal was that the workers in question were not their workmen and therefore there being no relation of employers and employees between them and the workmen, the reference itself was incompetent and there could be no industrial dispute between them and the workmen concerned, their case being that the workmen concerned were the workmen of independent contractors. It was found by the tribunal on the basis of evidence led before it by both parties that the modus operandi with respect to manufacture of bidis in the appellants concerns was that contractors took leaves and tobacco from the appellants and employed wor