The main legal point established in the judgment is the importance of conducting a free and fair enquiry and imposing a proportionate punishment in industrial dispute cases, as well as the application of Section 11-A of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

JUDGMENT :

(Prayer: Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for issuance of a Writ of Certiorari, calling for the records of the first respondent dated 18.05.2017 in I.D.No.8 of 2016 and quash the same.)

1. The Award dated 18.05.2017 passed by the first respondent-Tribunal in I.D.No.8 of 2016 is sought to be quashed.

2. The writ petitioner is one of the seven Spinning Mills of National Textile Corporation Limited functioning in the State of Tamil Nadu. The writ petitioner states that prior to 2013, it was having an Attendance Recording System in which each workman will punch the Attendance Recording Card given to him/her and once the workman concerned punches his/her card, the machine will print the time of his/her entry as well as exit on the days he/she reports for work. In addition, there is a practice of simultaneous marking of attendance of the workmen in their respective Departments where the workman concerned is working. The attendance recorded in the punching cards at the Gate will be compared with the attendance recorded in the Departments and if there was any discrepancy, the same will be corrected depending on their actual attendance of workmen.

3. In the year 2013, this system of recording attendance was replaced by a Digital Attendance Recording System by which the workman concerned, at the time of reporting for work will be required to record his/her attendance in the digital attendance recording system by affixing his/her finger print impression and when once the concerned workmen does so, the computerised Attendance Recording Nachine will automatically record his/her attendance by identifying the respective ticket number allotted to him/her.

4. In addition, when a workman reports for work in the concerned Department, after allocation of work, the Maistry will note down the ticket number of each workman reporting for work on daily basis in a separate register and the same will be forwarded to the Time Office for tallying with the register maintained in the Time Office. If the entries in these two registers tallies, the attendance of the concerned workman will be recorded in the register maintained for the purpose. The Mill used to disburse wages only on 7th of calendar month following the month for which wages are payable.

5. One or two days prior to the date of disbursement of wages, the particulars of attendance of workmen will be published to enable workman to ascertain the number of days worked by him/her in the month. If there is any difference or mistake in the entry between the attendance register recorded in the Gate and in the Department, the concerned workman should bring it to the notice of Time Office for correction. Further, at the time of disbursement of wages, the Time Office will also issue a wage slip containing the entire attendance particulars of workmen in the month.

6. In January 2014, it came to light that the attendance of one K.Ravi was recorded as having attended work on days when he had not actually worked and the Management decided to verify the attendance recording of all the workmen from November 2012 to January 2014. The Management found that one Amalraj, a Shift Time Keeper, was manipulating the Attendance Record of workmen Balasubramaniam, Radhika, Poongodi, Ravi and Senthilnathan. The said Ravi and Senthilnathan being casual workmen, they were not engaged after the manipulation came to light. Disciplinary action was initiated against Balasubramaniam, Radhika, Poongodi and Amalraj and each of them were proceeded with by way of disciplinary action and a charge sheet was issued and a separate domestic enquiry was conducted. The beneficiary workmen, including Smt.Radhika and Smt.Poongodi were received Rs.52,582/- by way of wages for the days when they had not reported for duty. In the enquiry, the delinquent employees were given adequate opportunity to vindicate their stand. All of them were awarded punishment of dismissal from service on 01.08.2014. The s