JUDGMENT

CHANDRACHUD, CJI.:— The appellant was appointed as a Dresser in the Medical Department of the Steel Authority of India, formerly the Bokaro Steel Plant Ltd. On March 1, 1975 he was dismissed from service as a result of a domestic inquiry on charges of misconduct consisting of absence from duty, falsification of entries in the registers, destruction of records, etc. Since an industrial dispute was pending in the Labour Court, Bokaro, between the management and its workmen, an application was filed by the management under Section 33 (2) (b) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, seeking approval of the Labour Court, Chota Nagpur, to the order of dismissal passed against the appellant. The decision of that application was partly in favour of the appellant and partly against him. By a judgment dated November 16, 1976, the Labour Court held that (i) the domestic inquiry was invalid because, the Chief Medical Officer of Bokaro Steel Ltd. was neither competent to issue the chargesheet nor to constitute the Enquiry Committee which held the appellant guilty of the charges framed against him; but, that (ii) the management should be given an opportunity to adduce evidence to justify t