The main legal point established in the judgment is that the Standing Orders should be in conformity with the Act and the matters set out in the Schedule. The court emphasized the authority's duty to ensure that the Standing Orders are fair and in conformity with the Act.

JUDGMENT :

K.A. Abdul Gafoor, J.—The petitioner, a registered union of the workmen under the first respondent company has approached this Court challenging Ext. P-5 and seeking a declaration that the Standing Order No. 16 of the 1st respondent, certified on June 23, 1978, concerning transfer is null and void. The certified Standing Orders contained a condition of service on transfer when it was certified on June 23,1978. The petitioner submitted Ext. P-1 application for modification of that Standing Order deleting clause No. 16 which provides that "A workman is liable to be transferred inter-departmentally or to any of the offices or branches or subsidiary concerns managed by the company". After considering Ext. P-2 objections and Ext. P-3 amendment to the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Central Rule s, by Ext. P-5 the second respondent declined modification. The second respondent declined to modify it on the grounds that the certified Standing Orders had been followed since 1978 without any complaint, that the appointment orders contained transfer as a condition of service, that Govt. of India had issued Ext. P-3 amendment to the Rules which is applicable to 'whole of India', that Ext. P-1 application was filed for deletion of certified Standing Order No. 16 and not for modification and that the authority had no jurisdiction u/s 10(2) of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 to delete any Standing Order certified by the authority.

2. The petitioner submits that inclusion of transfer as a condition of service in the Standing Order is against the provision of the said Act and the Rules framed thereunder. The appropriate Government in this case is Government of Kerala and therefore the Kerala Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Rule’s, 1958 alone shall apply to the issue and not the Central Rule’s. The appropriate authority in terms of Section 2(b) or the Act is the State Government and not the Central Government. The Kerala Rules do not contain any clause regarding transfer. Therefore, Government of Kerala has not prescribed transfer as a condition of service to be included in the Standing Orders. Standing Orders to be certified shall be relating to the matters set out in the Schedule to the Act. But Section 15 empowers the appropriate Government to prescribe additional matters to be included in the Schedule and the State Government has not made any Rule to include the transfer as a condition of service to the model Standing Orders scheduled to the Kerala Rule s. So the transfer could not have been an item to be included in 1978 when the workers were not unionised and were not conscious of their statutory rights. Relying on the transfer clause contained in the Standing Orders indiscriminate transfers were being effected and it was in the above circumstances Ext. P-2 application was submitted for modification of the Standing Orders u/s 10(2) of the Act. The authority has therefore perfect jurisdiction to allow the modification. It is further contended that there is no time limit for seeking modification and modification can be applied for, at any time, when the conditions contained in the Standing Orders become inconvenient or against the interest of any of the parties.

3. It is contended by the first respondent that the petitioner trade union is not a recognised one, does not have the representative character as it represented only a very thin minority of workmen, that the Certified Standing Orders had been followed since 1978 and majority of the workmen had not raised any complaint over that, that a transfer is a condition of service included in the appointment order, therefore it can be included in the Standing Order as a condition of service and that item No. 11 in the schedule to the Act enumerating matters to be provided in the Standing Orders included "any other matter which may be prescribed" and on its basis transfer can be included as a condition of service in the Standing Orders. It is further