The petitioner, a company incorporated under the provisions of the Indian Companies Act, 1956, having its registered office at Hyderabad filed this writ petition seeking a writ of mandamus or one in the nature of mandamus for the following reliefs:

a) declaring Notification G.O. Ms. No. 63, dated 02.08.2008 issued by the Principal Secretary to Government, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Labour, Employment, Training and Factories (Lab-I) Department, as being illegal and nonest and a nullity in law and being in excess of powers under Section 39 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947;

b) declaring Proceedings No. B/2930/2011, dated 16.05.2012 of the Joint Commissioner of Labour, Ranga Reddy Zone, Hyderabad, the respondent No.2 purportedly making a reference under Section 10(1)(d) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 as clearly illegal, invalid and void;

c) consequently restrain the learned respondent No.4 i.e., The Chairman-cum-Presiding Officer, Labour Court-I, Chandra Vihar Buildings, M.J. Market Road, Nampally, Hyderabad from proceeding with ID No. 43 of 2012 pursuant to the impugned Order of Reference.

The 1st respondent is the State of Andhra Pradesh while the 2nd and 3rd respondents are the Joint Commissioner of Labour and Assistant Commissioner of Labour respectively. The 4th respondent is the Chairman-cum-Presiding Officer, Labour Court I, Hyderabad, while the 5th respondent is a Trade Union.

The petitioner company is engaged in the business, inter alia, of publication of newspapers, manufacture of food products etc. It is not in dispute that several hundreds of employees are there on its rolls. One amongst them was a “House Keeping Assistant” by name P.Balaraju. He has been appointed on 1st October, 2006 through a letter of employment issued to him, listing out the terms and conditions subject to which the said individual came to be appointed. It was agreed therein that Balaraju will be paid a gross salary of Rs.3,438.75 per month inclusive of all allowances. It is also agreed that he will be paid a sum of Rs.235/-per month additionally towards special allowance, which is liable to be withdrawn as and when bonus will be applicable to the employees of the petitioner company. One of the terms of this letter of employment clearly stipulated that Balaraju is liable to be transferred from one Branch/ Office/ Section/Division/Job to another either in existence or which may come into existence anywhere in India. He is also liable to be deputed to any of the group organizations, either temporarily or permanently and that he will not be entitled to any additional remuneration on account of such transfer or deputation. Condition No.12 specified that the services are liable to be terminated, by either side, by giving one month’s notice or payment of one month’s salary in lieu of notice period. For breach of the terms of the employment on the part of the employee concerned, the company reserved power to terminate the employment without any notice. The said Balaraju accepted the terms and conditions contained in the letter of appointment dated 1.10.2006 and was thus serving the petitioner company. However, on 10.11.2010, the said Balaraju has been transferred to work at Mumbai -Andheri office of the petitioner company with effect from 18.11.2010 and accordingly he would be relieved at Hyderabad on 10.11.2010 after the close of the working hours, as specified in the order of transfer. Consequent to this order, the petitioner was ordered to be paid an additional amount of Rs.1,000/-per month towards place related allowance for the duration of posting at Mumbai. However, the said Balaraju has not reported to duty at Mumbai office pursuant to the order of transfer dated 10.11.2010. That act of Balaraju was construed as an act of willful insubordination/disobedience of lawful or reasonable orders of superiors and his subsequent unauthorized presence as amounting to gross misconduct. Hence, the petitioner initiated disciplinary action