Internal union disputes and election-related disputes fall outside the jurisdiction of the Joint Labour Commissioner, Registrar of Trade Unions, and Independent Board. Such disputes must be resolved through civil suits in a court of competent jurisdiction.

, J.

1. The petitioners herein claim to be office bearers of Indian Cable Workers Union; Golmuri, Jamshedpur. Petitioner No. 1 claims to be the President while Petitioner No.2 claims to be the General Secretary of the said Workers Union. They have impugned the orders passed by Respondent No.3 dated May 7, 1984 and April 9, 1986. Annexure-12 is the order dated May 7, 1984 whereby the Joint Labour Commissioner has referred the internal disputes of the Union for adjudication by the Independent Board, South Binar Sub-Committee (Respondent No .4 herein). By order dated April 9, 1986 (An-ncxurc-13) the Joint Labour Commissioner-cum-Registrar, Trade Unions has communicated the decision of the Independent Board, which decided to call for the list of members from the rival Unions and directed holding of election under the supervision of the Registrar, Trade Unions. Accordingly, the Unions have been directed to submit the list of members giving relevant particulars.

2. The case of the petitioners is that there is an Indian Cable Workers Union which is a registered Union of workers. Pursuant to a notice issued by the General Secretary a meeting of the Executive Committee was convened on January 17,1981 under the Presidentship of Sri Majumdar, the then Vice President of the Union and certain decisions were taken in that meeting. On January 19, 1981 thirty Executive Members of the Union wrote to the General Secretary intimating him about the no-confidence motion which they wished to bring against the President and the Treasurer of the Union, and requested the General Secretary to take necessary steps in this regard. The General Secretary of the Union, accordingly, issued notice to the Executive Members of the Union intimating that a meeting of the Executive Committee shall be held on January 31,1981. Included in the agenda of the meeting was the no-confidence motion sponsored by some of the members. Accordingly, the meeting was held on January 31, 1981 and the no-confidence motion against the President and the; Treasurer was passed.. The said meeting was presided over by Sri Umesh, a Vice President of the Union. Thereafter a notice was issued by the General Secretary convening a special general body meeting for ratifying the decision of the Executive Committee dated January 31, 1981. At the said general body meeting held on February 28, 1981, attended by about 900 members, title decision of the Executive Committee dated January 31,1981 was approved. The case of the petitioners is that thereafter several tripartite agreements were entered into and there was complete industrial peace. According to them, the Management recognised the Union of which the petitioners are the office bearers. It appears that a suit was filed in the Court of Munsif at Jamshedpur being Title SuitNo.218 of 1981 purported to have been filed on behalf of Indian Cable Workers Union for a declaration that one Sri N.B. Majumdar is the General Secretary of Indian Cable Workers Union, and defendant Nos.3 and 4 named in the plaint were not the General Secretary of the said Union. A prayer was made for restraining the management from negotiating with the aforesaid defendant Nos.3 and 4 in the suit. Later, on April 21, 1981 Sri N.B. Majumdar, purporting to be the General Secretary, filed a petition under Order XXXIX, Rules 1 and 2 and Sec. 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure for grant of temporary injunction restraining the management, defendant Nos. 1 and 2 from negotiating matters with defendants 3 and 4 acting as office bearers of the Workers Union. It was pleaded that there was an election held from October 14 to 16,1977 in which Ramanand Choudhary was elected as President and Rama Shankar Dubey (Defendant No.3) waselected as Secretary. DefendantNo.4, Amarnath Jha was elected as Assistant Secretary. In the same election other office bearers were also elected who were holding office. Recently defendant Nos.3 and 4, the General Secretary and Assistant Secretary respec