TEA DISTRICTS LABOUR ASSOCIATION, CALCUTTA versus EX-EMPLOYEES OF TEA DISTRICTS LABOUR ASSOCIATION AND ANOTHER

Citation: [1960] 3 S.C.R. 207 · Decided: 09-03-1960 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: P.B. GAJENDRAGADKAR · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed

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

Judgment (excerpt)

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3 S.C.R. 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
207 
surplus the Tribunal omitted to take into account the 
important fact that a sum of no less than £1,10,000/-
has been capitalised out of the reserves at the begin-
ning of the year. The second error was that the 
Tribunal in saying thal after paying 8 months' bonus 
there is a balance of £34,397 with the employer, 
omitted to take into consideration the fact that the 
company would also have the benefit of a large 
amount as income-tax rebate in respect of the bonus· 
paid to its clerical staff . 
Taking all these facts into oonsideration we a!'e of 
· opinion that a fair order would be to award to the 
staff bonus equivalent to 3 months' basic wages· in 
addition to the amount already paid voluntarily . 
We therefore allow the appeal in part and in 
·modification of the award made by the Industrial 
Tribunal award to the staff of M/s. Peirce Leslie Co., 
Ltd., bonus equivalent to 3 months' basic wages in 
addition to the amount already voluntarily paid by 
the company. There will be no order as to costs. 
··Appeal partly allowed. 
TEA DISTRICTS LABOUR ASSOCIATION, 
CALCUTTA ;; 
v. 
EX-EMPLOYEES OF T~A DISTRICTS LABOUR 
ASSOCIATION AND ANOTHER 
(P. B. GAJENDRAGADKAR AND K. N. WANCHOO, .JJ.) 
Industrial Dispute-Closure of business centres held mala fide-
If no closure in the eye of law in spite of actual closure-Industrial. 
Disputes (Appellate Tribunal) Act, r950 (XLVII ofr950),ss.22, 
23, 25F(C). 
As there was appreciable decline in the activities and busi-
ness of the appellant it decided, by means of a resolution, to 
close down two local agencies at Koraput and Berhampur 
{Ganjam) by May 31, 1957. About the same time the appellant 
also thought of retrenching its employees and decided to retrench 
ten of its employees with effect from December r, 1956. An 
industrial dispute having arisen as a result of the said closure and 
M/s. ·Peirce 
Leslie Q>. Co. Ltd. 
Kozhikode 
v. 
Their Work1nen 
Das Gupta .f. 
Mar~h 9. 
208 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[1960) 
'960 
retrenchment it was referred to the industrial tribunal for adjudi-
cation. 
Before the Industrial Tribunal it was conceded on behalf 
Tea Distr~ts. 
of the appellant that the retrenchn1ent of ten employees was in-
La]!ou' Association valid as the statutory notice required by s. 25F(c) of the Indus-
v.. 
trial Disputes (Appellate Tribunal) Act had not been served. It 
Thm 
was also stated afterwards that the statutory compensation had 
Ex-Employees 
been paid to the retrenched workmen. As regard"s the question 
of closure the tribunal came to the conclusion that the closure 
was not bona fide, and it held that the legal consequence was that 
there was not a real closure. Accordingly it directed the appel-
lant to reinstate the ten retrenched workmen and to pay all its 
workmen employed at the two centres as though the centres had 
not been closed and were actually working. On appeal by special 
leave: 
Held, that when the two agencies had in fact been closed the 
finding about malafides could not justify the conclusion that the 
said two agencies should be deemed to continue and the tribunal 
was not entitled to make an award on that basis. 
Banaras Ice Factory Ltd. v. Its Workmen, [r957] S.C.R.
0 
143, 
explained and distinguished. 
CIVIL 
APPELLATE 
JURISDICTION: 
Civil Appeal 
No. 169 of 1959. 
Appeal by special leave from the Award dated 
June 26, 1958, of the Industrial Tribunal, Orissa, at 
Cuttack in Reference No. 2 of 1957. 
M. 0. Setalvad, Attorney.General for India, Vidya 
Sagar and B. N. Ghosh, for the appellants. 
M. S. K. Sastri and R. Patnaik, for respondent 
No. 1. 
R. Patnaik, for respondent No. 2. 
1960. March 9. The Judgment of the Court was 
delivered by 
Gajendragadkar ]. 
GAJENDRAGADKAR, J.-This appeal by special leave 
arises from an industrial dispute between the appellant, 
the Tea Districts Labour Association, and the respon-
dents the ex-employees of the appellant and another. 
The dispute which was referred to the industrial tri-
bunal for its adjudication consisted of two items:-
" (a) Whether the retrenchment of ten workers 
of Kora put and Ganjam Agencies of Tea Districts 
Labour Association effected on the 30th November, 
1956, was justified, if not, to what relief those 
workers are entitled? 
(b) Whether the closure of the Koraput and 
Ga.njam Agencies contemplated by Messrs. Jardine 
Henderson Ltd., Secretaries, Tea Districts Labour 
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3 S.C.R. SUPREME CO

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