TATA ENGINEERING & LOCOMOTIVE CO. LTD. versus THEIR WORKMEN

Citation: [1982] 1 S.C.R. 929 · Decided: 16-10-1981 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: A.D. KOSHAL · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed

Cited by 2 judgment(s) · cites 3 · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

TATA ENGINEERING & LOCOMOTIVE 
CO. LTD. 
v. 
THEIR WORKMEN 
October 16, 1981 
[A.D. KOSHAL, V. BALAKRISHNA ERADI & R.B. MISRA, JJ.) 
929 
Industrial Disputes Act, 1947-Section 18(1)-Warkmen signed a settlement-
Union claimed that the declaration was forged and fictitious-Burden ~of proof on 
whom lay-Workmen, if could claim the settlement was unjust and unfair. 
In conciliation proceedings in relation to the demands of one of the two 
unions (known as Sanghatana) of workers of the appellant-company a settle--
meat wat reached. At the instance of the second union (Telco Union) which was 
dissatisfied with the settlement, the Government referred the dispute to the 
tribunal. Before the tribunal the company contended that since 564 out of 635 
daily rated workers to whom the settlement reached by the Sanghatana related, 
had assented to it, the dispute no longer survived. 
A 
8 
c 
D 
Rejecting the Telco Union's contention that the settlement was vitiated by 
duress, coercion or false promises, the tribunal held that it was binding on the 
E 
parties under section 18 (1) read '.with srction 2 (p) of the Industrial Disputes 
Act. The tribunal, however, held that it had not been proved by either party as 
to how many of the 564 workmen, who had assented to the settlement, were 
members of the Sanghatana. Although the tribunal found that the settlement 
was just and fair in most aspects it held that an increase in the additional daily 
wages was called for in respect of certain categories and calculated the increase 
separateJy for each grade. The tribunal refused to act upon the setdement. 
F 
Allowing the appeal, 
HELD : The declaration signed by 564 workers of the company constituted 
presumptive proof of the fact that the signatories to it were all membe1s of the 
Sanghatana when they signed it. 
In the absence of any evidence that any of the 
signatories to the declaration was not one of the 635 workers or that any signature 
appearing in the declaration was forged or fictitious the assertion of each 
signatory that he was a member of the Sanghatana is to be presumed to be 
correct until it is shown to be false. The onus to prove the falsity of the asser-
tion in the case of any particular workman rested on the Telco Union which 
made no attempt to discharge the burden. Out of 635 workmen, 564 signed the 
declaration. The fact that 400 workmen later on challenged the settlement only 
leads to the inference that at least 329 workmen changed sides afterwards. 
[932 H; 933A-C] 
G 
H 
930 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[1982] I s.c.R. 
A 
The conclusion of the tribunal that the settlement was not just and fair is 
unsustainable. The settlement as a whole was just and fair. If the settlement 
had been arrived at by a vast majority of the concerned workmen with their eyes 
open and was accepted by them in its totality, it must be presumed to be just 
and fair and not liable to be ignored while deciding the reference merely because 
a small number of workers were not parties to it or refused to accept it or because 
the tribunal was of the opinion that the workers deserved marginally higher 
8 
emoluments than they themselves thought they did. 
The question whether a 
settlement is just and fair has to be answered on the basis of principles different 
from those which come into 
play when 
an industrial 
dispute is under 
adjudication. [933 G-H) 
c 
Herbertsons Limited v. Workmen of Herbertsons Limited & Others, [1977] 
2 S.C.R. 15 followed. 
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 1484 of 
1971. 
Appeal by special leave from the Award dated the 30th April 
1971 of the Industrial Tribunal Maharashtra, Bombay in Reference 
D 
No. LT. 123 of 1968 published in the Maharashtra Government 
Gazette dated the 5th August, 1971. 
E 
F 
G 
H 
M.C. Bhandare and Dr. Y.S. Chitale, O.C. Mathur, K.J. John 
and J.S. Sinha, for the Appellant. 
Jitendra Sharma and Janardan Sharma for Respondent No. I. 
K. Rajendra Choudhary for Respondent No. 2. 
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by 
KOSHAL, J. This is an appeal by special leave against an award 
dated 30th April, 1971 of the Industrial Tribunal, Maharashtra (the 
Tribunal, for short), deciding a reference made to it under clause (d) 
of sub-section 1 of section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act (herein-
after called the Act) requiring adjudication of demands raised by the 
workmen of the Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company Limited 
(Machine Tools Division), Chinchwad {hereinafter 

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