IMPORTANT POINT
Relief by way of reinstatement with back wages is not automatic even if termination of an employee is found to be illegal or is in contravention of the prescribed procedure and that monetary compensation in lieu of reinstatement and back wages in cases of such nature may be appropriate

JUDGEMENT

R.M. Lodha, J. —

Leave granted.

2.The main question is whether relief of reinstatement and back wages granted to respondent nos. 1 to 14 (for short, ‘the workmen’) is justified. The facts leading up to this appeal by special leave are few and simple. The workmen were enrolled with the District Employment Exchange, Bhopal. On a requisition made by the Sr. Superintendent of Telegraph (Traffic) to the District Employment Exchange, the names of the workmen were sponsored and they were engaged as casual labourers in 1985 in Central Telegraph Office / District Telegraph Office, Bhopal. They continued as such upto February 10, 1987. During this period, the workmen had completed 240 days in each year. Vide order dated February 10, 1987, the services of the workmen were discontinued in the Central Telegraph Office / District Telegraph Office and they were asked to report in the office of A.E. (Cables) CTX, Bhopal. The case of the workmen is that they reported in the office of A.E. (Cables) CTX, Bhopal but they were not taken on duty on the pretext that there were no vacancies. On the other hand, the appellant claims that the workmen did not report for duty in the office of the A.E. (Cables) CTX, Bhopal and abandoned their job. The workmen initially approached Central Administrative Tribunal and then High Court for redressal of their grievance but no relief was granted to them as the controversy related to industrial dispute. The workmen, consequently, raised industrial dispute which was referred by the appropriate government for adjudication to the Central Government Industrial Tribunal (for short, ‘Tribunal’). The Tribunal on the basis of the case set up by the parties and the evidence on record held that the workmen had worked for more than 240 days in a year for nearly 3 years and that their services were retrenched by an order dated February 10, 1987 without following the mandatory provisions of Section 25 F of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (for short, ‘ID Act’). The Tribunal did not accept the plea of the appellant that on their redeployment, the workmen abandoned their service. The Tribunal, accordingly, by its award dated August 8, 2003 directed the appellant to reinstate the workmen and pay them back wages from the date of termination until the date of reinstatement within 3 months of the publication of the award and upon appellant’s failure to comply with the award within stipulated period, it was directed that interest at the rate of 8 per cent per annum shall be payable. The appellant challenged the said award before the High Court by filing writ petition which was dismissed on November 9, 2005.

3.Mr. R. D. Agrawala, learned senior counsel submitted that the erstwhile Central Telegraph Office / District Telegraph Office, Bhopal where the workmen were engaged was an establishment of the Post and Telegraph Department, Government of India and, therefore, it was not an ‘industry’ under the ID Act. He, however, did not dispute that this plea was not raised by the appellant in reply before the Tribunal. No such point was argued before the Tribunal. As a matter of fact, even before the High Court, no such plea was raised in the writ petition nor argued on behalf of the appellant. In the circumstances, we do not deem it appropriate to permit the appellant to raise this plea for the first time in this appeal.

4.Learned senior counsel for the appellant then submitted that vide order dated February 10, 1987, the services of the workmen were not terminated but they were redeployed in the office of A.E. (Cables) CTX, Bhopal; the workmen, however, did not join their duty there and they abandoned their service. The Tribunal referred to the cross-examination of the appellant’s witness Shri A.K. Saxena in this regard and did not find any merit in this submission. The High Court found no justification to interfere with the said finding of the Tribunal. We have no justifiable reason to take a different view on facts found by the Tribu