Judgment:-This Civil Revision Petition is directed against the judgment of the Principal District Judge of Pondicherry, which was rendered under the following circumstances.

2. The Employees of the Pondicherry Government Press constituted themselves into the Government Press Employees’ Union and under section 5 of the Trade Unions Act, applied to the Registrar of Trade Unions, Pondicherry, for registration of the trade union. The Commissioner of Labour, Pondicherry, who happens to be also the Registrar of Trade Unions, sent a communication to the Secretary of the Government Press Employees’ Union on 1st July, 1971, regretting his inability to register the trade union under the Trade Unions Act, 1962. The ground given by the Registrar for refusing to register the application was, “the present functions of the Government Press, Pondicherry, do not come within the meaning of trade or business”. Aggrieved by this order, the Secretary of the Government Press Employees’ Trade Union filed an appeal with the District Judge, Pondicherry, in C.M.A. No. 45 of 1971, impugning the order of the Registrar. It was argued before the learned District Judge that the Government Press had been printing challans, gazettes and calendars, which were being sold to the public for a price and that the Government Press was also printing budget papers and papers for the various Departments of the Government thereby rendering service either to the public at large or to a section of the public. This description of the functions of the Government Press, Pondicherry, was not disputed by the counsel appearing for the Registrar of Trade Unions. But, it was contended on the basis of certain decisions, that the employees in the Government Press, being Government servants, were disentitled to form a trade union and therefore, their association was ineligible for registration under the Trade Unions Act. The learned District Judge, upon a consideration of the provisions of the Trade Unions Act, came to the conclusion, having regard to the nature of the activities of the Government Press, that it partook of the character of business and industry and that the workers employed in this industry were entitled to have their union registered under the Trade Unions Act, 1926. Consequently, the learned District Judge set aside the order of the Registrar of T/ade Unions and allowed the appeal with costs. It is against this judgment that the Registrar of Trade Unions, Pondicherry, has preferred this petition. The Trade Unions Act, 1926, as can be gathered from the preamble thereto, was intended to provide for the registration of trade unions and in certain respects, to define the law relating to registered trade unions. Under the Pondicherry Laws Regulation, 1963, this Act was extended to Pondicherry with effect from 1st October, 1963. Clause (h) of section 2 of the Trade Unions Act, defines a trade union to mean, “any combination, whether temporary or permanent, formed primarily for the purpose of regulating the relations between workmen and employers or between workman and workman, or between employers and employers, or for imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business, and includes any federation of two or more Trade Unions”. The term “workman” employed in clause (h) has been defined in this latter part of. the earlier clause (g) of section 2. Clause (g) runs as follows:

“ ‘Trade dispute’ means any dispute between employers and workmen or between workman and workman, or between employers and employers which is connected with the employment or non-employment, or the terms of employment or the conditions of labour, of any person, and ‘workmen’ means all persons employed in trade or industry whether or not in the employment of the employer with whom the trade dispute arises.”

The question arises whether the workmen represented by the Government Press Employees’ Union, Pondicherry, are persons employed in “trade’ or” industry“. If they are are so employed

Click Here to Read the rest of this document