B. K. SOMASEKHARA, J.

( 1 ) THE simple and clear question involved in this writ petition is whether the respondents can be directed by this Court in its powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to hold the elections to the petitioner-union which is a trade union registered under Sec. 8 of the Trade Unions Act, 1926 (for short the Act ) and by virtue of Rule 11 of the Rules of the petitioner-Union and clause (2) of the Code of Discipline (for short the Code ) said to have been evolved by the managements in regard to both public and private sectors for the smooth running of administration of labour laws. The respondent No. 1 is the Commissioner of Labour, Government of A. P. whereas respondent No. 2 is the Assistant Commissioner of Labour, Circle-II, Ranga Reddy District under whose jurisdiction the petitioner-Union comes. The background in which the petitioner is trying to enforce the grievance in this writ petition may be stated in brief, the facts mentioned thereunder appear to be not in controversy.

( 2 ) THE petitioner-Union was registered on 9-3-1984 by the Deputy Registrar of Trade Unions under Registration No. A-2503 by virtue of Sec. 8 of the Act. It appears that the Commissioner of Labour, Government of A. P. conducted union verification election in India Leaf Spring Company to determine the majority Union in August, 1988. The period of verification election was to be done every two years and the Labour Commissioner suo motu was to hold next elections in the year of August, 1990. Butno such elections were conducted by the Labour Commissioner. The petitioner submitted a memorandum in this regard on 17-10-1996 and based on that the 1st respondent issued a memo no. E1 /242s9, dated 11-12-1996 appointing the 2nd respondent as Verification officer to conduct the union election in India Leaf Spring Company of which the petitioner is the Union. The Verification Officer issued first notice on 25-1-1997 calling for the records and registers and membership list etc. , and issued secondnotice on 17-2-1997. The petitioner Union submitted the registers and records of membership on 12-2-1997 and other Unions also submitted the records and registers. The petitioner alleged that thereafter, the 2nd respondent did not take any action in the matter and thus the interests of the petitioner and the workmen are being affected in relation to their claim with the management which is allegedly harassing the workers etc. , and affected their collective bargaining power which is guaranteed under the industrial Disputes Act, 1947. It is alleged that the respondents have not fixed the schedule of election for verification and to determine the majority union and therefore they have violated the principles of natural justice and articles 14 and 19 (l) (c) of the Constitution of India. As there was no response from the respondents in spite of representations as supra, the petitioner had to file the present petition seeking direction to the respondents to dispose of the application of the petitioner by fixing the union election schedule in India leaf Spring Company, Nacharam, R. R. District without any further delay.

( 3 ) ON behalf of respondent No. 1, while not disputing the facts stated above, it is pointed out that a show cause notice has been issued to the management of India Leaf Spring Company for non-recognition of the majority Union under sec. 2 (ra) read with Sec. 25-U, V Schedule item 2 (b) of the Industrial Disputes act, that was challenged by the management in W. P. No. 13943/89 and the show cause notice has been stayed in W. P. M. P. No. l8474/89 by order dated 29-9-1989 and in view of the pendency of the writ petition, the elections could not be held in the said industrial establishment. Therefore the order issued on 11-12-1996 was kept in abeyance by Memo No. E1/24289/96, dated 22-2-1997 pending decision of this Court in the writ proceedings supra. It is also contended that the writ petition is not maintainable as per th

Click Here to Read the rest of this document