Rajagopalan, J.—The petitioner, representing the Management of a Match Factory at Madras applied under Article 226 of the Constitution for the issue of a writ of certiorari to set aside the Award of the Industrial Tribunal, Madras, dated 25th July, 1957, in I.D. No. 9 of 1957. In view of the peculiar feature of this application that it was filed after the petitioner had failed to obtain leave of the Supreme Court to prefer an appeal under Article 136 of the Constitution against the Award in I.D. No. 9 of 1957 the application came up before a Division Bench even at the initial stage, when a rule nisi was ordered to issue.

Over 1,600 workmen were employed in the petitioner’s factory. In addition to the basic wages each of the workmen was given (1) dearness allowance calculated at two annas in the rupee on the basic wages ; (2) a grain allowance of Re. 1-9-0 in cash ; and (3) a store purchase quota. The last enabled a workman to purchase at the stores the factory maintained essential and other commodities at pre-war prices upto the limit of the quota allotted to him. The minimum quota allotted to each of the workmen was Rs.13. 1,460 of the workmen received this minimum quota. The quota allotted to 202 others who belonged to the artisan class, ranged from Rs. 14 to Rs. 26. The employer and the employees both preferred a wage structure which provided for cash payments of basic wages and dearness allowance. That question was referred to the Industrial Tribunal at Madras (I.D. No. 6 of 1953).

The Award of the Industrial Tribunal in I.D. No.6 of 1953 directed payment of dearness allowance on the basis of the cost of living index calculated at 4 annas 1 pie per point with the index at 355 the dearness allowance payable under the terms of the Award amounted to Rs. 64-9-0 a month. Some other features of the Award have to be noted even at this stage. The cash dearness allowance was payable to all workmen. Secondly what all the workmen lost thereafter was the right to the basic minimum quota of Rs. 13. We have pointed out that 202 of the workmen were in receipt of quotas above Rs.13. How each of them should be compensated by the Management for the loss of that excess quota was not the subject-matter of the Award in I.D. No. 6 of 1953. Even before the Industrial Tribunal, the Management offered to devise later an acceptable formula for the loss of the quota above the minimum of Rs.13. What the Management stated in the counter-statement it filed in I.D. No. 6 of 1953 was:

“Men who are getting varying stores quotas ranging from Rs. 14 plus Re. 1-9-0 to Rs. 26 plus Re. 1-9-0 are mostly time-rated artisans who are given increased stores quota for efficiency. Those who are affected by the proposed concession will be compensated in some manner according to the merits of each case, except by way of cash dearness allowance.”

That even that undertaking should be made part of the Award was one of the claims of the workmen in the appeal that they filed against the Award in I.D. No. 6 of 1953. That appeal, however, failed. One other feature to be noted is that the cash dearness allowance, which did away with the store purchase quota up to Rs. 13, was based on the cost of living index and not on the evaluation of the lost quota right in terms of money.

Even before the disposal of the appeal preferred by the workmen against the Award in I.D. No. 6 of 1953, in May, 1954, itself the Management took steps to implement the assurance it had given during the pendency of that dispute to compensate the workmen for the loss of the quota above the basic minimum of Rs. 13. The Management claimed that there were 202 workmen in that category. Eventually the workmen claimed that there were 222 such workmen. It may not, however, be necessary for us to fix that number with precision. The proposal of the Management was embodied in its memorandum, dated 6th May, 1954. It consisted of two parts. The first part which provided the basis for the evaluation of the quota is best set

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