JUDGMENT

D. A. DESAI, J.:— It is most unfortunate that all those unhealthy and injudicious practices resorted to for unduly delaying the conclusion of civil proceedings have stealthily crept in, for reasons not unknown, in the adjudication of industrial disputes for the resolution of which An informal forum and simple procedure were devised with the avowed object of keeping them free from the dilatory practices of Civil Courts. Times without number this Court, (to quote only two, D.P. Maheshwari v. Delhi Administration, (1983) 4 SCC 293 and S. K. Verma v. Mahesh Chandra, (1983) 4 SCC 214, disapproved the practice of raising frivolous preliminary objections at the instance of the employer to delay and defeat by exhausting the workmen, the outcome of the dispute yet we have to deal with the same situation in this appeal by special leave.

2. The Government of Maharashtra by its order dated Oct. 22, 1975 referred a dispute between Hindustan Lever Ltd. (employer for short) and the workmen employed by them for adjudication under Section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 to the Industrial Tribunal, Maharashtra. The schedule, annexed to the order of reference specified the dispute as