CLERKS OF CALCUTTA TRAMWAYS versus CALCUTTA TRAMWAYS CO. LTD.

Citation: [1956] 1 S.C.R. 772 · Decided: 11-10-1956 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: NATWARLAL HARILAL BHAGWATI · Disposal: Dismissed

Judgment (excerpt)

1956 
October 11 
772 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[1956] 
CLERKS OF CALCUTTA TRAMWAYS 
v. 
CALCUTTA TRAMWAYS CO. LTD. 
[BHAGWATI, VENKATARAMA AYYAR, s. K. DAS and 
GovINDA MENON JJ.] 
Industrial dispute-Dearness allowance-Clerks-Middle class 
employees-Whether uniform rates to be adopted-Decisions of Trilm-
nals-Power of the Supreme Court to interfere. 
It is well settled that the decisions of a Tribunal on questions 
of fact are final and that the Supreme Court would interfere only in 
cases where (1) the Tribunal acts in excess of the jurisdiction con-
ferred upon it under the statute or regulation creating it or where it 
ostensibly iails to exercise a patent jurisdiction; (2) there is an 
error apparenb on the face of the decision; (3) the Tribunal bas 
erroneously applied well-accepted principles of jurisprudence. 
The Bengal Chamber of Commerce of which the respondent 
Company was a member, had made an investigation into the cost of 
living index for the middle class families and fixed the dearness 
allowance payable to the employees of the mercantile firms in Cal-
cutta. Before the Industrial Tribunal as well as the Labour Appel-
late Tribunal the claim was put forward on behalf of the appellants 
{bhe clerks of the respondent Company) that the dearness allowance 
for them should be at the same rates as those decided upon by the 
Bengal Chamber of Commerce in respect of the middle classes to 
which the appellants belonged and they contended that the procedure 
adopted by the Labour Appellate Tribunal leaving out 20 points of 
the living cost index un-neutralised was not justifiable. 
Held, that in matters of bhe grant of dearness allowance there 
cannot be a hard and fast rule applicable to all kinds of employees 
and except in the very lowest class of manual labourers it is not 
proper to neutralise the entire rise in the cost of living by dearness 
allowance. There are different grades among the middle classes and 
the appellants cannot claim to have the same rates of dearness 
allowance as those fixed for the clerks of the mercantile firms by the 
Bengal Chamber of Commerce. 
CIVIL 
APPELLATE JURISDICTION: 
Civil Appeal 
No. 105 of 1954. 
Appeal by special leave from the judgment and 
order dated November 6, 1952, of the Labour Appel-
late Tribunal, Calcutta in Appeal No. Cal-3 of 1952 
S.C.R. 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
773 
1956 
arising out of the award dated September 25, 1951, 
of the Court of District Judge, Industrial Tribunal, 
Calcutta in Case No. VIII-23 of 1951. 
Clerks of Calcutta 
Tramways 
S. 0. Isaacs, A. K. Datt and Sukumar Ghose, for 
the appellants. 
M. 0. Setalvad, Attorney-General for India, D. R. 
Das and S. N. Mukherji, for the respondent. 
B. Sen and P. K. Bose, for Intervener (State of 
West Bengal). 
1956. October 11. The Judgment of the Court 
was delivered by 
GOVINDA MENON J.-This appeal is by special 
leave against the decision of the Labour Appellate 
Tribunal of India, Calcutta, which modified the award, 
passed by the Industrial Tribunal, Calcutta, in the 
matter of a dispute referred to it by the Government 
of West Bengal, for adjudication with regard to the 
rates of dearness allowance for clerks and Depot 
cashiers, employed by the Calcutta Tramways Coy. 
Ltd., numbering about 600, out of a total of 10,000 
workmen. Disputes having arisen between the work-
men of the Calcutta Tramways Coy. Ltd. (which may 
hereafter be called 'The Company') on the one hand, 
and the employers on the other, relating to the dear-
ness allowance payable to the workmen, there were 
two previous awards, one dated May 16, 1947, by Sri 
S. N. Guba Roy, and the other dated October 27, 
1948, by Sri P. K. Sircar. Both of these awards related 
to all the employees of the Company and not to the 
clerks and Depot cashiers alone. 
Subsequently a 
reference was made by the West Bengal Government 
on June 13, 1951, concerning a dispute relating to the 
dearness allowance of the workmen of the Company, 
excluding clerks and Depot cashiers. 
There was an 
award and an appeal, and in that appeal the Appel-
late Tribunal increased the dearness allowance by 
Rs. 7 /8/- for workmen in the pay ranges below Rs. 50 
and up to the pay range of Rs. 250 and by a flat rate 
v. 
Calcutta 
Tramways 
Co. Ltd. 
• 
1956 
Clerks of Calcutta 
Tramways 
v. 
Calcutta 
Tramways 
Co. Ltd. 
Govinda ,Menon]. 
774 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[1956] 
of Rs. 5 in the higher pay ranges taking the cost of 
living index of the workmen class at 37

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