D.Falshaw and Gurdev Singh JJ.

1. On a reference being made by the Punjab Government, vide their notification No. 11484-C-Lab-57/20797, dated the 14th September 1957 the Industrial Tribunal, Punjab, Jullundur, made an award on the 23rd March 1959. The dispute was between the Cantonment Board, Ambala Cantonment, on the one hand and Krishna Murti employed as Record Keeper in the said Board on the other. The present petition has been filed in this Court by the aforesaid Cantonment Board under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, and the prayer made is that appropriate writs, orders and directions may be issued quashing the said award.

2. Various questions of law arise in the case and some of them are of considerable" importance and a decision regarding the same is likely to affect a large number of similar cases. The jurisdiction of the Punjab Government to make the reference in question is challenged on two main grounds which are :

(1) that the dispute between a Cantonment Board and its Record Keeper cannot be regarded as an industrial dispute as defined in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and

(2) that the Punjab Government is in any case not the appropriate Government