JUDGMENT

KRISHNA IYER, J. (for himself and D. A. Desai J.) :— Every litigation has a moral and, these appeals have many, the foremost being that the economics of law is the essence of labour jurisprudence.

The case in a nutshell.

2. An affluent Magement and an indigent work force are the two wings of the Gujarat Steel Tubes Ltd. which manufactures steel tubes in the outskirts of Ahmedabad city and is scarred by an industrial dispute resulting in these appeals. This industry, started in 1960, went into production since 1964 and waggled from infancy to adulthood with smiling profits and growling workers, punctuated by smoldering demands, strikes and settlements, until there brewed a confrontation culminating in a head-on collision following upon certain unhappy happenings. A total strike ensued, whose chain reaction was a wholesale termination of all the employees, followed by fresh recruitment of workmen, de facto breakdown of the strike and dispute over restoration of the removed workmen. This cataclysmic episode and its sequel formed the basis of a Section 10A arbitration and award, a writ petition and judgment, inevitably spiralling up to this Court in two appeals - one by the Management and the other by the Union - which have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment. The arbitrator held the action of the Management warranted while the High Court reversed the Award and substantially directed reinstatement.

The Jural Perspective:

3. A few fundamental issues, factual and legal on which bitter controversy raged at the bar, settle the decisional fate of this case. A plethora of precedents has been cited and volumes of evidence read for our consideration by both sides. But the jural resolution of labour disputes must be sought in the law-life complex, beyond the factual blinkers of decided cases, beneath the lexical littleness of statutory texts, in the economic basics of industrial justice which must enliven the consciousness of the court and the corpus juris. This Court has developed labour law on this broad basis and what this Court has declared holds good for the country. We must fix the founding faith in this juristic branch before unravelling the details of particular case.

4. Viewing from this vantage point it is relevant to note that the ethical roots of jurisprudence, with economic overtones, are the elan vital of any countrys legal system. So it is that we begin with two quotations - one from the Old Testament and the other from Gandhiji, the Indian New Testament - as perspective-setters. After all, industrial law must set the moral-legal norms for the modus vivendi between the partners in management, namely, Capital and Labour. Gain retorted, when asked by God about his brother Abel, in the Old Testament, Am I my brothers keeper? Yes was the implicit answer in Gods curse of Gain. In the fraternal economics of national production, worker is partner in this biblical spirit. In our society, Capital shall be the brother and keeper of Labour and cannot disown this obligation, especially because Social Justice and Arts. 43 and 43A re constitutional mandates.

5. Gandhiji, to whom the Arbitrator has adverted in passing in his award, way back in March 1946, wrote on Capitalism and Strikes in the Harijan:

"How should capital behave when labour strikes? This question is in the air and has great importance at the present moment. One way is that of suppression named or nicknamed American. It consists in suppression of lobour through organised goondaism. Everybody would consider this is wrong and destructive. The other way, right and honourable, consists in considering every strike on its merits and giving labour its due not what capital considers as due, but what labour itself would so consider and enlightened public opinion acclaims as just. Socialism of my Conception (M. K. Gandhi) by Anand T. Hingorani, Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan.

In my opinion, employers and employed are equal partners, even if employees are no