The power of the Tribunal to receive or call for evidence at any stage of the proceeding under Rule 15 of the West Bengal Industrial Disputes Rules, 1958 cannot be curtailed by the limitation of 14 days imposed under Rule 20-C of the said Rules.

( 1 ) BOTH the writ applications containing the same question of law and fact have been heard together.

( 2 ) THE short question which has arisen in the present writ application is whether in view of the provisions of Rule 20-C of the West Bengal Industrial Disputes Rules, 1958 (which has been incorporated by way of an amendment by a notification dated November 12, 1993 substituting the previous rules) will stand in the way of the Tribunal in receiving evidence on materials after the expiry of the time limit prescribed in Rule 20-C.

( 3 ) IN W. P. No. 1583 of 1997 the petitioner company has challenged the order dated May 12,1997 being No. 32 of the Industrial Tribunal rejecting the prayer of the petitioner-company for producing certain documents which according to the petitioner company is relevant for adjudication of the dispute during cross examination of a witness for the workman on the ground that in view of the limitation fixed for the disclosure of documents specified under Rule 20-C under the aforesaid rules, such prayer cannot be allowed. ,

( 4 ) ADMITTEDLY such application was made by the petitioner company long after the expiry of the aforesaid time limit specified in Rule 20-C and in fact when examination of the witnesses have stated and one of the witnesses for the workman was being examined. By the said application the petitioner-company wanted to produce certain documents on the ground that the same are very much relevant for proper adjudication of the disputes before the Tribunal and such documents were not in possession at the time of discovery of documents. While the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner company has contended, inter alia, that the time limit prescribed under Rule 20-C does not take away power of the Tribunal to receive evidence even subsequent to that, but the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent workman has submitted that since by the aforesaid amended Rule 20-C, the original Rule 20-C of the said Rules which permitted production of materials and documents even after completion' of the discovery stage with a special leave of the Tribunal, has been deleted and such amended provision has to be given credence by the Court and cannot be ignored and therefore after the, aforesaid expiry of the period, documents cannot be received.

( 5 ) SO far as W. P. No. 2025 of 1997 is concerned it appears that the same writ petitioner-company after rejection of the prayer by the Tribunal to produce such documents on the grounds aforesaid, applied under Sections 11 (a) and 11 (b) of the Industrial Disputes Act read with Rule 20-E of the said rules for enforcing attendance of witnesses of the Union compelling production of such documents which they wanted to produce earlier, but by order No. 36 dated July 31, 1997 the Tribunal has also rejected such prayer on the ground that the prayer of the petitioner company for production of such documents already having been refused by the Tribunal by earlier order the petitioner-company cannot now be allowed to take recourse to the provision of Sections 11 (a) and 11 (b) of the Act read with Rule 20-E and therefore to get something indirectly which they did not get directly.

( 6 ) HAVING heard the learned counsels for the parties and considering the applications it appears to this Court that Rule 20-C of West Bengal Industrial Disputes Rules, 1958 as it stands now after the amendment, really deals with discovery and inspection of documents. Whereas under the original Rule 20-C any party to the adjudication was required to apply on affidavit for inspection of original documents disclosed and call for any documents as may be necessary for proper appreciation of the dispute within 10 days from the date of filing of the written statement by the second party, under the present Rule 20-C within 14 days from the date of filing of the written statement by the second party, the parties are required to file a list disclosing the doc