The appeal before us involves an application by the appellant for an order of certiorari to quash an award made on 20 January 1979 by the Industrial Court in Industrial Court Case No. 200 of 1978 (`the second award') as an aftermath of Award No. 148 of 1978 in Industrial Court Case No. 169 of 1976 made on 7 October 1978 (`the first award'). To obviate prolixity, all references in this judgment to statutory provisions are to the Industrial Relations Act 1967.

It is not necessary to set out in any detail the fs of this matter and it will suffice to only relate the salient facts in so far as they are material to the determination of what is primarily and substantially a point of law in issue in these proceedings. The Minister of Labour and Manpower referred to the Industrial Court a trade dispute between the parties pertaining to a new collective agreement on the expiry of the previous one and the Industrial Court after an extensive hearing made the first award under which on computation some RM400,000 was payable by the appellant to its employees on or before 30 November 1978 as adjustments and arrears of wages. In view of the deadline imposed, the appellant's solicitors wro