Judgment

BHARGAVA, J. : This appeal, by special leave, has arisen out of an award made by the Industrial Tribunal, Andhra Pradesh, at Hyderabad in an Industrial dispute between the respondent, the Indian Leaf Tobacco Development Company Limited, Guntur (hereinafter referred to as the Company"), and its workmen. Admittedly, the Company is an associate of the Imperial Tobacco Company Ltd., and the main business carried on by the Company is that of purchasing tobacco of all varieties and qualities, stemming, grading and packing of tobacco and supplying it to the Imperial Tobacco Company as well as exporting the tobacco to various foreign countries in the world. The Company has been carrying on this business for about 40 years and handles almost 35 per cent of the tobacco grown in the State of Andhra Pradesh. For the work of stemming, grading and packing tobacco, the Company has two factories, one at Anaparty in East Godavary District, and the other at Chirala in Guntur District. In connection with this business, the Company, in the year 1962, was maintaining 21 depots where, according to the workmen, the appellants, the Company was carrying on the work of collecting tobacco though the Company s case was that the principal work done at these depots was that of handling the tobacco purchased at other places and only included the work of purchasing tobacco on a small scale.

2. On 16th August, 1963, the Company gave a notice to the Union of the appellant workmen that 8 out of 21 depots mentioned therein would be closed down with effect from 30th September, 1963. Thereafter, an industrial dispute was raised by the workmen which related to the closure of these 8 depots, as well as to a number of other demands, including revision of basic wages and dearness allowance, additional discomfort allowance, etc. The State Government, by its order dated 14th November, 1963, referred the dispute for adjudication under Section 10 (1) (d) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 to the Industrial Tribunal, Hyderabad. The first issue, which was referred for adjudication, was as follows :-

"How far the demands no the union, viz., (i) that no depot which worked during 1962 season should be closed, and (ii) that no workman who worked in 1962 season should be retrenched are justified? There were ten other issues, but we need not reproduce them, as we are not concerned with them in this appeal.

3. In the proceedings for adjudication, the Company took a preliminary objection that the closure of the depots was a managerial function, that there could not be an industrial dispute over such closure, that the Government, therefore, had no power to refer this issue for adjudication, and that the Tribunal also had no power to adjudicate on it. Thereupon, the Tribunal framed a preliminary issue as to "whether the employer is justified in alleging that Issue No. 1 framed by the Government cannot be deemed to relate to an industrial dispute, and as such, whether the Government had the power to refer it for adjudication." The Tribunal decided this preliminary issue by giving an interim award on the 13th August, 1964. The preliminary objection was allowed and a further direction was made that the effect of this decision on Issue No. 1 will be decided later after hearing the parties. Thereafter, the Tribunal proceeded to hear the reference on this question as well as on all other issues referred to it and ultimately, gave its award on 11th December, 1964. In that award, both the parts of issue No. 1 were decided against the workmen. The workmen have now come up in this appeal against the interim award dated 13th August, 1964 as well as against the final award insofar as it relates to issue No.1.

4. The decision given by the Tribunal in the interim award, holding that the reference covered by issue No.1 was not competent, has been challenged by learned counsel for the appellants on the ground that the closure of a depot does not amount to closure of business in law and, since