The appropriate Government has very wide powers in respect of making an order referring the disputes between the management and the workmen to the industrial court or tribunal, once certain industrial disputes have been referred to the industrial court or tribunal the matter remains exclusively within the jurisdiction of the industrial court or tribunal which is seized of the matter.

JUDGMENT :

TAMBE, J.

1. This is a petition by the union of the workmen working in the engineering industrial concern of the respondent 1, Kamani Engineering Corporation Ltd. Respondent 2 is the industrial tribunal and respondent 3 is the State of Maharashtra. The petitioners by the petition under Arts. 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India seek to get quashed the notification issued by the State Government on 18 January, 1964 and also seek to get quashed the order made by the industrial tribunal overruling the preliminary objection raised by the petitioners. Facts in brief are : The petitioners raised certain disputes for revision of wage-scales, dearness allowance, incentive production bonus scheme, etc., both in respect of daily-rated workmen as well as monthly-paid employees. These disputes were raised in February, 1961. Ultimately the State Government by its order No. AJK 2262-LAB-II, dated 18 December, 1962, referred certain disputes to the industrial tribunal for adjudication. The disputes relating to the daily-rated workmen referred for adjudication to the industrial tribunal were :

(1) Wage-scales and classification.

(2) Dearness allowance.

(3) Production bonus.

(4) Apprentices.

2. The disputes in respect of monthly-paid employees referred to the industrial tribunal were :

(1) Grades and scales of pay.

(2) Dearness allowance.

(3) Production bonus.

(4) Permanency.

(5) Abolition of marriage clause.

(6) Grade of canteen employees.

(7) Dearness allowance.

3. To this order, for brevity's sake, we will hereinafter refer as the first order of reference. It would at this stage be convenient to reproduce the material part of this order relating to the production bonus :

"Whereas the Government of Maharashtra is of opinion that an industrial dispute connected with the matters specified in the schedule appended hereto exists between the Kamani Engineering Corporation, Ltd., Kurla, Bombay, and the workmen employed under it;

Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by Clause (d) of Sub-section (1) of S. 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, the Government of Maharashtra is pleased to refer the said dispute for adjudication to the tribunal consisting of ...

Schedule

Part I - For daily-rated workmen -

(1) * * *

(2) * * *

(3) Production bonus. - The present incentive scheme should be revised as under :

(a) The scheme should be made applicable to all the departments of the company.

(b) When the production in the establishment reaches 500 tons in a month all the daily-rated workers should get 10 per cent of their earnings as production bonus, the number of workmen being the average number employed in the year 1960.

(c) For every 10 tons increase in a month's production above 500 tons a 2 per cent increase in the percentage should be given over and above that in Clause (b) above.

(d) The existing bylaws and clauses regarding the absenteeism, etc., should be abolished.

(e) Bonus should be determined by the ratio of days filled in by a worker to the number of working days in a month.

(f) The above benefits should be paid with retrospective effect from 1 July, 1961.

Part II - For monthly paid employees -

(1) * * *

(2) * * *

(3) Production bonus. - (i) Monthly-rated employees connected directly with production.

Monthly-rated employees should be paid production bonus at the same rate as paid to daily-rated workmen.

(ii) Fifty per cent of the average production bonus paid to the employees directly connected with production, should be paid as production bonus to all other monthly-rated employees. Production bonus for all monthly-rated employees should be paid with retrospective effect from July, 1961."

4. On receipt of the order the industrial tribunal proceeded to deal with the afore said reference and on 8 January, 1964 arguments were heard by the tribunal and the case was closed for making an award. On 18 January, 1964 the Government of Maharashtra made another order which the petitioners seek to get quashed by this petition. It would be convenient to repr