( 1 ) THERE is a time for everything. There is a time for showing sympathy. There is also a time for being strict. Problems arise when one enters by the wrong time-door and shows sympathy where strictness is called for and vice versa. And the present is the case which sharpens the profile of this problem. The Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation had dismissed a conductor who was found guilty of collecting fare from passengers without issuing tickets. The Labour Court which was exercising jurisdiction for reducing punishment under sec. 11-A of the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947 had undoubtedly wide discretion in the matter of reduction of punishment as held by us in R. M. Parmar v. Gujarat Electricity Board Baroda 23 G. L. R. 352. We re-affirm the nine propositions enunciated therein viz. : (1) There is widespread unemployment in our country and it is difficult to secure a job to earn enough to keep body and soul together unlike in developed countries: (2) The State does not provide social benefits like unemployment allowance to enable a discharged employee to sustain himself and his family to some extent as is being done in the developed countries: (3) In impo