The Labour Court has specific powers conferred on it similar to that of Order IX C.P.C., and the petitioner had the remedy of moving the Labour Court with an appropriate petition.

The petitioner is the management. He has come forward to file a present writ petition, seeking to challenge an Award of the first respondent Labour Court made in I.D.No.134 of 2006, dated 29.10.2009. The said Award was an ex-parte Award. After setting the petitioner management ex-parte, the Labour Court examined the workmen second respondent and marked Exs.W.1 and W.2 and allowed the claim made by him.

2. It is the claim of the management that the second respondent has filed an application before the Labour Officer, Vellore, seeking prosecution of management for non implementation of the Award. The petitioner relied upon a judgment of this court in 1997-1-LLJ 923 and stated that even the impugned order did not give any reasons and therefore, it is liable to be set aside. It was also claimed that they have no other remedy except to approach this court under Article 226 of the Constitution.

3. Heard Mr.John, learned counsel appearing for M/s.T.S.Gopalan and Co. The statement that there is no other alternative remedy cannot be countenanced by this court. Such a statement is incorrect in view of Rule 48 of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Dispute Rules, 1958. For the sake of convenience, the entire rule may be reproduced as below: 48 .Exparte proceedings.-

(1)If, without showing sufficient cause any party to proceedings before a Board, Court, Labour Court, Tribunal or Arbitrator fails to attend or to be represented, the Board, Court, Labour Court, Tribunal or the Arbitrator may proceed as if the party had duly attended or had been represented.

(2)The Board, Court, Labour Court, or Tribunal or an Arbitrator may, for sufficient cause, set aside, after notice to the opposite party, the ex-parte decision either wholly or in part, on an application made within 15 days of the ex-parte decision ; Provided that an application may be admitted after the said period of 15 days, if the applicant satisfies the Board, Court, Labour Court or Tribunal or Arbitrator, as the case may be, that he had sufficient cause for not preferring the application within that period.

(3)An application under sub-rule (2) shall be supported by an affidavit."

4. Even then, the learned counsel for the petitioner contended that since the Award might have been published, the Tribunal would have become functus officio after 30 days from the date of publication of the Award and hence he cannot approach the Labour Court. The said contention does not stand to reason as the doubt expressed by the petitioner has been allayed by the three judgments of the Supreme Court.

5. In the first judgment of the Supreme court in Grindlays Bank Ltd. v. Central Govt. Industrial Tribunal reported in 1980 Supp SCC 420, the Supreme Court dealt with a similar issue arose out of Industrial Disputes (Central) Rules, 1957. Rule 22 of the Industrial Disputes (Central) Rules, 1957 reads as follows:

“22. If without sufficient cause being shown, any party to proceedings before a Board, Court, Labour Court, Tribunal, National Tribunal or Arbitrator fails to attend or to be represented, the Board, Court, Labour Court, Tribunal, National Tribunal or Arbitrator may proceed, as if the party had duly attended or had been represented.” Rule 24(b) provides that the Tribunal or other body shall have the power of a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 in the matter of grant of adjournments. It runs thus :

“24. In addition to the powers conferred by the Act, Boards, Courts, Labour Courts, Tribunals and National Tribunals shall have the same powers as are vested in a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, when trying a suit, in respect of the following matters, namely” (a) (omitted) (b) granting adjournment.”

6. The Supreme Court in its judgment in paragraphs 10 to 12 observed as follows: "10. When sub-section (1) of Section 11 expressly and in clear terms confers power upon the Tribunal to regulate its own procedure, it must necessarily be endowed with all powers which bring ab