1. The petitioner in this petition under Art.226 of the Constitution is the Indian Aluminium Company Limited, Alwaye, and the two respondents are the workmen of the said Company represented by the Aluminium Factory Workers' Union, Alwaye, and the Industrial Tribunal, Trivandrum.

2. The petition questions the validity of Ex. P2, an order of the Industrial Tribunal, Trivandrum, dated 25-4-1957. The order overruled the contentions of the petitioner regarding the maintainability of the reference and posted the case for evidence on the issue referred for adjudication, namely

"Is the discharge of Sri M. P. Mathai justifiable? If not, to what relief is he entitled?"

3. The preliminary objections were:

(1) that Mathai was not a workman as defined in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947;

(2) that Exs. P3 and P4, the awards of the Industrial Tribunal, Ernakulam, in adjudication Nos. 4 and 5 of 1951, precluded the Union from contending that he was a workman within the meaning of that definition; and

(3) that in any view of the matter there can be no reference of the issue for adjudication except after the termination of the awards, Exts. P3 and P4, as contemplated by subsection (6) of S.19