JUDGMENT

JASWANT SINGH, J. :— This appeal by special leave challenges the award dated Dec. 30, 1970 of the Eighth Industrial Tribunal, West Bengal, in a reference made to it by the State Government under S. 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 holding the striking workmen entitled to their wages for a portion of the strike period viz. from January 11, 1968 to the end of February, 1968, and directing the appellant to pay the same to the workmen within one month from the date of the publication of the award in the Calcutta Gazette.

2. For a proper appreciation of the questions involved in the appeal, it is necessary to set out the circumstances leading to the strike which lie in a short compass. On December 27, 1967, the appellant M/s. Crompton Greaves Ltd., Calcutta, (hereinafter referred to as the Company), which is an engineering concern engaged in the manufacture and sale of electrical products such as motor-fans, motor control gears, transformers and other electrical instruments, and has its Registered Office at Bombay and branches at several places in India, intimated to Greaves Cotton and Crompton Parkinston Associate concerns workmens Union, Calcutta, (hereinafter referred