S. Ramachandra Ayyar, C.J.

This is an appeal under Cl. 15, the Letters Patent, by the East Asiatic Company (India) (Private), Ltd., Madras, referred to hereafter as the "management," against the judgment of Veeraswami. J., declining to issue a writ sought by them to quash the award passed by the labour court at Madras, directing the reinstatement of worker S. V. Chandran with back-wages by the management. S. V. Chandran entered the service of the management as a clerk in its establishment in the year 1950. During the time material to the present dispute, he was employed in the X-ray department at its godown at Royapuram. Chandran was an active member of the Employees' Union and he had also been declared as a "protected workman" within the meaning of S. 33 of the Industrial Disputes Act.

On 11 July 1960 the employees of the Central Government went on strike with a view to obtain redressal of certain grievances. Three days earlier, the President of India had promulgated an Ordinance called the Essential Services Maintenance Ordinance, 1960. That enabled the Central Government, by a general or special order, to prohibit strikes in any essential service. The term "essential s