The Court held that an industrial dispute raised after a lengthy delay is considered stale and not subject to referral for adjudication.

JUDGMENT :

Ajay Mohan Goel, J.

Notice. Mr. Pushpinder Jaswal, learned Additional Advocate General, accepts notice on behalf of respondents.

2. By way of this petition, the petitioners have, inter alia, prayed for the following reliefs:-

“a. That this Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to issue an appropriate writ, order or direction thereby quashing and setting aside the order dated 30.01.2018 in the interest of justice;
b. That the oral termination/retrenchment of the petitioner may kindly be quashed and set aside.
c. That the respondents may be directed to re-instate the services of petitioner w.e.f. 1997 alongwith seniority, continuity of service alongwith all consequential benefits.
d. That the respondents may kindly be directed to grant all back wages from the date of raising Industrial Dispute and further arrear to the petitioner alongwith interest @ 9% annum.”

3. The order under challenge, dated 30.01.2028 (Annexure P-4), has been assailed by way of this petition. A perusal of the impugned order demonstrates that the Appropriate Government did not refer the Demand Notice of the petitioner to the learned Labour Court, inter alia, on the ground that he had raised the issue of his termination, which happened in the year 1997, in the Month of January, 2017. By referring to the judgments mentioned therein, the Authority held that there was no justification to refer the matter to the learned Labour Court. As observed hereinabove, order, which was passed on 30.01.2018, has been assailed now after a period of six years by the petitioner and no cogent explanation is there for his delay in assailing the order passed in the year 2018. In fact, this Court concurs with the reasoning returned in order dated 30.01.2018 that as the petitioner was raising an industrial dispute after twenty years, obviously as the dispute had become stale, no purpose was going to be served by referring the same to the learned Labour Court. Not only this, the slackness on the part of the petitioner can be further gauged from the fact that the order which was passed in the year 2018, has now been assailed after six years and thus, this petition otherwise is also hit by delays and latches.

4. Accordingly, in view of the above observations, the petition is dismissed, as the same is hit by delays and latches. Pending miscellaneous application(s), if any also stand disposed of accordingly.