The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 is a self-contained Code and that it itself provides for an adequate remedy for violation of Standing Orders.

( 1 ) THE petitioner is an employee of Respondent No. 1, the Hindusthan Cables Ltd. (Annexure A to the petition), a Government of India Undertaking, 'owned' by the Central Government within the meaning of Section 617 of the Companies Act, 1956, in which the Central Government is the sole shareholder

( 2 ) ON 29-11-63, the petitioner, a Driver-cum-Mechanic was suspended by the Administrative Officer of respondent No. 1 by tht order at Annexure B to the Petition. In this order, it was alleged that the petitioner was guiltv of 'insubordination and disobedience' to orders issued by his superior authority and was accordingly considered 'undesirable' to be retained in the service of the company. On 2-12-63, the Administrative Authority served the charge-sheet at Annexure C to the petition and asked the petitioner to show cause why disciplinary action should not be taken against him on the charge of misconduct comprising of-- (i) Wilful insubordination or disobedience to superior order; (ii) Negligence of work; (iii) Habitual indiscipline and misbehaviour

( 3 ) SHRI S. Bhattacharyya was appointed the Enquiry Officer and on the report of that Officer, the petitioner was asked to show cause by 8-2-64 why he should not be dismissed (Annexure D, pp. 24 and 22 of the petition ). The petitioner obtained this Rule on 7-2-64 for quashing the impugned order on the grounds inter alia, that the impugned orders are ultra vires and violative of natural justice.

( 4 ) THE petitioner's grievance, in substance, is that the requirements of Clause 14 (a) of the Standing Orders of respondent No. 1, framed under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 have been violated and, for the same reason, the rules of natural justice, as implied in the said clause, have been contravened. The plea of the respondent No. 1 is that neither the Standing Orders nor the rules of natural justice have been violated on the facts alleged, and, above all, the petitioner is not entitled to obtain any relief under Article 226 of the Constitution, inasmuch as respondent No. 1 is nothing but a private limited company under the Companies Act.

( 5 ) BEFORE taking UP the above points, I shall dispose of one point on which I am in complete agreement with the view expressed by A. C. Sen. J. In Malik Ram v. Hindus-than Cables, C. R. 779/w of 1963, D/- 4-1-1966 (Cal) namely, that an employee under the Hindusthan Cables Ltd. does not hold a civil post 'under the Union or State', because as a Company registered under the Companies Act, it, has a separate legal entity and cannot, juristically, be identified with the Government of India or of State whatever may be the share, ownership or management of the Company. Hence, the employees of this Company cannot claim the protection of Article 311 of the Constitution.

( 6 ) IN view of the above finding, it has been urged on behalf of the respondents that relief under Article 226 of the Constitution is not available against a company registered under the Companies Act. The answer to this question, however, is not simple and would depend upon some other considerations.

( 7 ) THE first question to be determined is the legal character of the Standing Orders made under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946. The question appears to have been settled by the Supreme Court, in the case of Workmen of Dewan Tea Estate v. Their Management, holding that, after a standing order is certified by the statutory authority under Section 5 of the Act, it becomes 'part of the Statutory terms and conditions of service' between the employers and employees of the industrial establishment concerned. It is true that the Standing Orders may have been framed by a private industrial establishment which comes within the purview of the Act. But the Act provides for the conditions of service of employees of such establishments, which were previously left to the agreement of the parties, to be brought under statutory control. The A