The main legal point established in the judgment is that the special rules under Art.309 of the Constitution, relating to the temporary employees in the P & T Department, exclude the provisions in Chapter V-A of the Industrial Disputes Act.

1. Accepting that the Posts and Telegraphs Department, (P. & T Department-in short) is an industry, are the temporary employees in this Department bound by the rules framed under Art.309 of the Constitution, to the exclusion of the provisions contained in Chapter V A of the Industrial Disputes Act, or can the service rules be ignored in preference to the statutory provisions in the Industrial Disputes Act. This, in short, is the important point arising before the Full Bench in these writ appeals. The brief facts are these:

2. The petitioners in the two writ petitions were employed as temporary Clerks in the P & T Department. Their services were terminated by the postal authorities. This court set aside those orders holding that the termination was illegal. They were accordingly re-instated; but the department allowed their claim for salary only for three years preceding the date of the High Court order. The petitioners claimed salary for the entire period they were out of service and moved the Central Government Labour Court under S.33(C)(2) of the Industrial Disputes Act for determination of the monetary benefits due to them.

3. The Department took a preliminary objection that the petitioners are not workmen employed in any industry and therefore the Labour Court had no jurisdiction. The preliminary objection was upheld and the application was dismissed.

4. The order was challenged by the petitioners in the two writ petitions. The writ petitions have been allowed, the order of the Labour Court set aside and the matter remanded for fresh consideration. The learned judge held that P & T Department is an industry and despite the service rules under Art.309, the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act would apply. The learned judge reasoned thus:

"In advancing these arguments the respondents have not taken note of the field which the Act occupies. The Industrial Disputes Act is not primarily concerned with the actual service conditions of the employees as such. The Act as its preamble says is for the purpose of making provision for the investigation and settlement of industrial disputes. It is the product of the afterneath of the industrial revolution when new ideas of social justice and fair play as between capital and labour came into force. India emerging from feudal period suddenly to the industrial age had to take note of the new industrial legislations in the developed countries and apply the same here with necessary modifications. Peace in industry is the principle underlying the Act and therefore in the settlement of industrial disputes the contract between the parties which in the circumstances could only mean the rules framed by the employers, the dominant partner is not the prime basis for decision. The industrial courts functioning under the Act are not enforcing the common law of the land or the contract between the parties but deciding questions in accordance with fair and equitable principles on the basis of the conceptions of industrial relations which the civilized world have to accept. The industrial court is enabled to go beyond the contract between the parties. Therefore framing of rules by the Government for its servants functioning in a public utility service as Post and Telegraph, telephones or railways will not in any manner entrench on the field occupied by the Industrial Disputes Act which is a special legislation dealing with settlement of industrial disputes. We have to take into account that by the Act, means are secured by which labour practices which are regarded as unfair are frustrated and the policy of collective bargaining as a road to industrial peace is secured.

No doubt generally one hardly thinks in terms of an industry when regard be had to the Government and its servants even in non-regal spheres. But as Chandrasekhara Aiyer J. observed a quarter of a century back the Parliament can give the words industry and industrial dispute a wide comprehensive import to meet the requirement