Nainar Sundaram, J.

Swadeshi Cotton Mills Thozhilalar Shemanala Padhukappu Union, represented by its President, the petitioner in W.P. 2756 of 81, is the appellant in this writ appeal. The respondent herein are the respondents in the writ petition. For the sake of convenience, the parties shall be referred to in this judgment as they stood arrayed in the writ petition. A dispute arose in 1979 between the second respondent Mills, hereinafter referred to as the Mills, and its workmen on the question of bonus for the year 1978-79. The Mills had paid up advance bonus at 20 per cent of the earnings of its workmen. A settlement was reached in the course of conciliation on 18th November, 1980 under S.12(3) of the Industrial Disputes Act 14 of 1947, hereinafter referred to as the Act, under which it was agreed that the bonus could be only at 12 per cent and the Mills were conjured the right to recover the excess of bonus paid in advance. This settlement was arrived at before the third respondent. At the time of the settlement, the petitioner was not even formed. To this settlement over 20 Unions, representating the workman of the Mills, were parties. This settlement is not being