G.K.MITTER, J.

(1) IN this appeal by special leave the appellant challenges the jurisdiction of the Labour court to adjudicate upon the dispute referred to it and also contends that the finding of that court that there was a closure of the appellants factory in the circumstances of the case was a perverse one which ought not to be upheld. The third and the last submission put forward was that the Labour court had gone wrong in its interpretation of the relevant provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act as they stood at the time of the reference.

(2) THE amount in stake in this appeal is quite an insignificant one but the appeal has been brought as a test case for a number of other similar disputes.

(3) THE appellant is a partnership firm carrying on the manufacture and sale of Bidis at various places in the Vidarbha region of the State of Maharashtra and other places including Nagpur. It employed 4000 men in its factories. On the issue of a notification by the government of Bombay dated 11/06/1958 under Section 5(2) read with Section 5(1)(b) of the Minimum Wages Act. 1948 the appellant "felt that the situation created by the notification was such