The termination without a proper domestic inquiry was not justified and the court modified the award to settle the matter with a payment to the respondent workman.

Amreshwar Pratap Sahi, J.

This petition is by the employer questioning the correctness of the award passed by the Labour Court in favour of the respondent No. 2 - workman giving him continuity of service and reinstatement with 50% back wages. The workman has been found entitled to full wages with effect from the date of award onwards. An interim order was passed on 10.12.1999 staying the award subject to compliance of the provisions of Section 17-B of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Sri S.D. Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner has stated at the bar that the respondent workman has been paid approximately Rs. 2 lacs 15 thousand by way of salary @ Rs. 2,855/- per month during the pendency of this petition in compliance of the interim order.

2. The respondent workman is stated to be engaged as a temporary weighment clerk having worked between January, 1990 to June, 1990 for a period of 145 days. The said engagement was made under the U.P. Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply of Purchase) Rules, 1954 framed under the 1953 Act. The petitioner employer alleges that engagement being temporary and not seasonal, the respondent workman was not entitled for any relief.

3. Sri S.D. Singh has urged that the status of the respondent workman not being seasonal he was not entitled to any such benefits or even the benefit of reinstatement. He further contends that the respondent workman acted in a manner by negotiating fake parchis for supply of sugarcane that has resulted in loss of confidence. The employer therefore dispensed with his services after having obtained information on the basis of a preliminary inquiry and accordingly the services were terminated vide letter dated 15.4.1996 copy whereof is annexure 6 to the writ petition. The said termination is on the basis of the report of the Senior Manager (Cane) dated 11.4.1996 copy whereof is Annexure 5 to the writ petition which specifically contains an allegation that on inquires made at the Computer Section of the Cane Growing Society at Daurala it was revealed that the "parchis" against which supply was being reflected had not been issued from the Society and were fake. For this the evidence relied on, was the computer sheet of the society.

4. It is thereafter that a reference was made before the Labour Court and accordingly the same has been answered holding that the employers have terminated the services of a seasonal employee without holding any inquiry and therefore he was entitled for reinstatement, back wages and continuance. The Labour Court further came to the finding that he was a seasonal employee and not a temporary employee.

5. Sri S.D. Singh contends that on an inquiry it was found that 75 "parchis" were fake and that the respondent workman had admitted weighing sugarcane against 107 "parchis" including the said disputed 75 parchis. This admission according to Sri Singh is there in the statement of the workman which amounts to accepting the guilt. He further contends that the Labour Court committed a manifest error by neither discussing this evidence in correct perspective and the statement of the witnesses on behalf of the employer and has proceeded to deliver the award without any finding on guilt or innocence. He has relied on the decision in the case of Kisan Sahkari Chini Mills Ltd. and Others Vs. Awadhesh Singh, (1994) 2 LLJ 1067, to support his submission that the respondent workman was a temporary employee and not a seasonal workman. He has further substantiated his plea by relying on the Supreme Court decision in the case of U.P. State Sugar Corporation Ltd. Now Dowiala Sugar Co. Ltd. Doiwala through its Executive Director Vs. Niraj Kumar and Others, (2009) 14 SCC 712. He has further urged that the weight of evidence on record categorically indicates that the entire material was there and the respondent workman could not successfully refute the same, particularly, the information received from the Cane Society in the shape of computer sheets establishing that