JUDGMENT

O. CHINNAPPA REDDY, J.:—The Central Government the appropriate Government within the meaning of Section 2 (a) of the Industrial Disputes Act, referred the following dispute for adjudication to the Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court, New Delhi : "Whether the action of the management of the Life Insurance Corporation of India, New Delhi in dismissing Shri S. K. Verma, Development Officer in Jullundur Branch of the Corporation, with effect from February 78,1969 is justified ? If not, to what relief is the workman entitled ?" The Life Insurance Corporation promptly raised a preliminary objection regarding the maintainability of the reference on the ground that Shri S. K. Verma was not a workman.

2. There appear to be three preliminary objections which have become quite the fashion to be raised by all employers, particularly public sector corporations, whenever an industrial dispute is referred to a tribunal for adjudication. One objection is that there is no industry, a second that there is no industrial dispute and the third that the workman is no workman. It is a pity that when the Central Government, in all solemnity, refers an industrial dispute for adjudication, a public