Full Judgment Text
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PETITIONER:
BENGAL CHEMICAL & PHARMACEUTICALWORKS LTD., CALCUTTA
Vs.
RESPONDENT:
THEIR WORKMEN
DATE OF JUDGMENT:
28/01/1959
BENCH:
SUBBARAO, K.
BENCH:
SUBBARAO, K.
GAJENDRAGADKAR, P.B.
SARKAR, A.K.
CITATION:
1959 AIR 633 1959 SCR Supl. (2) 136
CITATOR INFO :
RF 1961 SC 100 (2)
R 1966 SC 976 (22)
RF 1967 SC 284 (3,4)
F 1967 SC 948 (6)
RF 1969 SC 360 (8)
APL 1969 SC 513 (16)
R 1972 SC1552 (9)
R 1974 SC 136 (10)
R 1974 SC 526 (18)
R 1976 SC 758 (8,9)
R 1979 SC 75 (11)
F 1989 SC1972 (13)
RF 1990 SC1050 (10)
ACT:
Industrial Dispute-Reference-Government, if empowered to
transfer from one Tribunal to another-Award-If can be
superseded by fresh agreement-Disputes referred on fresh
agreement-Reference if bad-Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14
of 1947), SS. 2(r) and 7A. Industrial Disputes (Amendment
and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1956 (36 of 1956), S. 30-
Industrial Disputes (Amendment) Act, 1957 (18 of 1957), S.
2.
Supreme Court-scope of jurisdiction vis-a-vis the Award of
Tribunal-Right of appeal-Constitution of India, Art. 136.
HEADNOTE:
Aggrieved by an Award of 195, the employees placed before
the Company a fresh charter of demands which was mutually
settled by a written agreement which provided, inter alia,
that the existing rate of dearness allowance should prevail
which was adjustable to any future substantial change in the
cost of living index of the working class. As the cost of
living increased disputes arose, and in spite of the said
Award of 1951,
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which was not terminated according to law, the dispute
arising out of the said written agreement was referred for
adjudication by the Government to the Second Industrial
Tribunal, Calcutta, in September, 1956. In April 1957, the
Government transferred the dispute from the Second
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Industrial Tribunal to the Fifth Industrial Tribunal. The
Company, inter alia, contended that the Government had no
power to transfer the dispute from one Tribunal to another
and that the reference was bad as the 1951 Award had not
been duly terminated.
The Industrial Disputes (Amendment and Miscellaneous
Provisions) Act (36 of 1956) amending the Industrial
Disputes Act (14 Of 1947) came into force on August 28,
1956, giving authority to the Government to transfer a
reference from one Tribunal to another, which was followed
by a further amending Act, being Industrial Disputes
(Amendment) Act (18 of 1957) whereunder among other things a
new definition of ’Tribunal’ was given, whereby the
Industrial Tribunal constituted prior to March 10, 1957,
under s. 7A of Act 14 Of 1947 was included.
Held, that as a result of the amendments to the Industrial
Disputes Act, 1947, the Government had authority to transfer
a case from one Tribunal to another.
’Tribunal ’ as defined by s. 2(r) of the Industrial Disputes
Act, 1947, as amended by Act 36 of 1956, read with amending
Act 18 of 1957, empowers the Government to transfer a
reference from one Tribunal to another.
Where, in spite of a previous award, the employees after
raising fresh demands entered into a new agreement with the
employer which started a fresh chapter regulating the
relationship of the parties, the previous award, though not
terminated in accordance with the provisions of law, must be
deemed to have been superseded.
Held, further, that though Art. 136 of the Constitution is
couched in the widest terms and confers a discretionary
power, (which cannot exhaustively be defined) on the Supreme
Court to grant special leave to appeal from the order of a
tribunal, but it is necessary for the Supreme Court to
exercise its said discretionary jurisdiction only in cases
(a) where there is a violation of the principle of natural
justice, (b) raises an important principle of industrial law
requiring elucidation and final decision by the Supreme
Court, or (c) discloses such other exceptional or special
circumstances which merit the final decision by the Supreme
Court. Such discretionary reserve power cannot obviously be
so construed as to confer a right of appeal to any party
from the decision of a Tribunal, where he has none under the
law.
Industrial Disputes Act is intended to be a self-contained
one and it seeks to- achieve social justice on the basis of
collective bargaining, conciliation and arbitration. Awards
are given on circumstances peculiar to each dispute and the
Tribunals are to a
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138
large extent free from restrictions of technical
considerations imposed on courts.
A free and liberal exercise of the discretionary powers by
the Supreme Court may materially affect the fundamental
basis of the decision, namely, quick solution to such
disputes to achieve industrial peace.
Where an Industrial Tribunal on the consideration of the
entire material placed before it and having regard to the
overall picture, came to a conclusion of facts, the Supreme
Court will not interfere with such finding of fact nor will
it be justified to allow to make a new case for the first
time before it.
Pritam Singh v. State of Madras, [1950] S.C.R. 453; Hem Raj
v. State of Ajmer, [1954] S.C.R. 1133 and Sadhu Singh v.
State of PEPSU, A.I.R. 1954 S.C. 272, referred to.
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JUDGMENT:
CIVIL APPELATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeals Nos. 125 and 164
of 1958.
Appeals by special leave from the Award dated August 26,
1957, of the Fifth Industrial Tribunal -at West Bengal in
Case No. VIII-264/56.
S. C. Issacs and S. N. Mukherjee, for the Appellants in C.
A. No. 125/58 and Respondents in C. A. No. 164/58.
N. C. Chatterjee and Dipak Datta Choudhri, for the.
Respondents in C. A. No. 125/58 and Appellants in C. A.
No. 164/58.
1959. January 28. The Judgment of the Court was delivered
by
SUBBA RAO, J.-These appeals are by Special Leave -from the
Award by Shri G. Palit, Judge, Fifth Industrial Tribunal,
West Bengal, in the matter of a dispute between Messrs.
Bengal Chemical & Pharmaceutical Works Limited, Calcutta,
and their employees, represented by Bengal Chemical Mazdoor
Union, Calcutta.
The Government of West Bengal by its order dated September
13, 1956, referred the following dispute between the parties
referred to above to the Second Industrial Tribunal under s.
10 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (Act 14 of 1947),
hereinafter referred to as the Act. " Is the demand of the
employees for increase in Dearness Allowance justified ? If
so, at what rate?". The said Act was amended- by the
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Industrial Disputes (Amendment & Miscellaneous Provisions)
Act, 1956 (36 of 1956), which came into force on August 28,
1956. On April 9, 1956, the’ Government made ail order
transferring the said dispute from the file of the Second
Industrial Tribunal to that of the Fifth Industrial
Tribunal. The Fifth Industrial Tribunal, after making the
necessary inquiry, made the award on August 26,1957, and it
was duly notified in the Calcutta Gazette on September 26,
1957. As a mistake had crept in, the award was modified by
the Tribunal by its order dated the 29th November, 1957; and
the modified award was published in the Calcutta Gazette on
the 29th November, 1957. Under the award the Tribunal held
that there was a rise in the cost of living index and that
to neutralise the said rise the employees should get an
increase of Rs. 7 in dearness allowance on the pay scale up
to Rs. 50 and Rs. 5 on the pay scale above Rs. 50. On that
basis the dearness allowance payable to the employees was
worked out and awarded. The correctness of the award is
questioned in these appeals. The Company preferred Civil
Appeal No. 125 of 1958 against the award in so far it was
against it and the Union preferred Civil Appeal No. 164 of
1958 in so far it went against the employees. For
convenience of reference, the parties will be referred to in
the course of the judgment as the Company and the Union.
Learned Counsel for the Company raised before us the
following points: (1) The order dated April 9, 1957, made by
the Government transferring the dispute from the file of the
Second Industrial Tribunal to that of the Fifth Industrial
Tribunal was illegal; (2) the previous award made by the
Tribunal between the same parties on April 26, 1951, and
confirmed by the Labour Appellate Tribunal by its order
dated August 30, 1951, had not been terminated in accordance
with the provisions of s. 19(6) of the Act and therefore the
present reference was bad in law and without jurisdiction;
(3) there was no change in the circumstances obtaining at
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the time the previous award was made and those prevailing at
the time of the present reference as to justify making out a
new award; (4) the Tribunal
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went wrong in taking the rise in the cost of living index
between the years 1954 and 1957 instead of taking the
fluctuating rate in the index between the date of the
earlier award, i.e., August 30, 1951, and the date of the
present reference in the year 1957 ; (5) the Tribunal went
wrong in so far as it based its decision on the Second
Engineering Award of 1950 which was already considered by
the Tribunal in its earlier award of the year 1951; and (6)
in any event, in computing the amount, the Tribunal applied
wrong criteria.
We shall consider the above contentions seriatim. But
before doing so, it will be convenient to refer briefly to
the scope of jurisdiction of this Court under Art. 136 of
the Constitution vis-a-vis the awards of Tribunals. Article
136 of the Constitution does not confer a right of appeal to
any party from the decision of any tribunal, but it confers
a discretionary power on the Supreme Court to grant special
leave to appeal from the order of any tribunal in the.
territory of India. It is implicit in the discretionary
reserve power that it cannot be exhaustively defined. It
cannot obviously be so construed as to confer a right to a
party where he has none under the law. The Industrial
Disputes Act is intended to be a self-contained one and it
seeks to achieve social justice on the basis of collective
bargaining, conciliation and arbitration. Awards are given
on circumstances peculiar to each dispute and the tribunals
are, to a large extent, free from the restrictions of
technical considerations imposed on courts. A free and
liberal exercise of the power under Art. 136 may materially
affect the fundamental basis of such decisions, namely,
quick solution to such disputes to achieve industrial peace.
Though Art. 136 is couched in widest terms, it is necessary
for this Court to exercise its discretionary jurisdiction
only in cases where awards are made in violation of the
principles of natural justice, causing substantial and grave
injustice to parties or raises an important principle of
industrial law requiring elucidation, and final decision by
this Court or discloses such other exceptional or special
circumstances which merit the consideration of this Court.
The points raised by the
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learned Counsel, except perhaps the first point , do not
stand the test of any one of those principles.
Learned Counsel for the Company, however, says that, though
the’ said principles might be applied at the time of
granting leave, once leave is given no such restrictions
could be imposed or applied at the time of the final
disposal of the appeal. The limits to the exercise of the
power under Art. 136 cannot be made to depend upon the
appellant obtaining the special leave of this Court, for two
reasons, viz., (i) at that stage the Court may not be in
full possession Of all material circumstances to make up its
mind and (ii) the order is only an ex parte one made in the
absence of the respondent. The same principle should,
therefore, be applied in exercising the power of
interference with the awards of tribunals irrespective of
the fact that the question arises at the time of granting
special leave or at the time the appeal is disposed of. It
would be illogical to apply two different standards at two
different stages of the same case. The same view was
expressed by this Court in Pritam Singh v. The State of
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Madras (1), Hem Raj v. State of Ajmer(1) and sadhu Singh v.
State of Pepsu(3)
The first question turns upon the construction of the
relevant provisions of the Act as amended by the Industrial
Disputes (Amendment and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1956.
The relevant provisions inserted by the Amending Act read as
follows:
"Section 2(r) : I Tribunal’ means an Industrial Tribunal
constituted under section 7A."
" 7 A. Tribunals.-(1) The appropriate Government may, by
notification in the official Gazette, constitute one or more
Industrial Tribunals for the adjudication of industrial
disputes relating to any matter, whether specified in the
Second Schedule or the Third Schedule.
(2) A Tribunal shall consist of one person only to be
appointed by the appropriate Government.
(3) A person shall not be qualified for appointment as the
presiding officer of a Tribunal unless-
(1) [1950] S.C.R. 453. (2) [1954] S.C.R. 1153.
(3) A.I.R. 1954 S.C. 271.
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(a) he is, or has been, a Judge of a High Court; or
(b) he has held the office of the Chairman or any other
member of the Labour Appellate Tribunal constituted under
the Industial Disputes (Appellate Tribunal) Act, 1950 (48 of
1950), or of any Tribunal, for a period of not less than two
years.
(4) The appropriate Government may, if it so thinks fit,
appoint two persons as assessors to advise the Tribunal in
the proceeding before it."
"33B. (1) The appropriate Government may, by order in
writing and for reasons to be stated therein, withdraw any
proceeding under this Act pending before a Labour Court,
Tribunal, or National Tribunal,’ as the case may be, for the
disposal of the proceeding and the Labour Court, Tribunal or
National Tribunal to which the proceeding is so transferred
may, subject to-special directions in the order of transfer,
proceed either de novo or from the stage at which it was so
transferred :
Provided that where a proceeding under section 33 or section
33A is pending before a Tribunal or National Tribunal, the
proceeding may also be transferred to a Labour Court."
Section 30 of the Amending Act reads:
" If immediately before the commencement of this Act, there
is pending any proceeding in relation to an industrial
dispute before a Tribunal constituted under the Industrial
Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947), as in force before such
commencement, the dispute may be adjudicated and the
proceeding disposed of by the Tribunal after such
commencement, as if this Act has not been passed."
Section 7, before the Amendment ran thus:
" The appropriate Government may constitute one or more
Industrial Tribunals for the adjudication of industrial
disputes in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
(2) A Tribunal shall consist of such number of members as
the appropriate Government thinks fit. Where the Tribunal
consists of two or more members, one of them shall be
appointed as chairman.
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(3) Every member of the Tribunal shall be an independent
person,
(a) who is or has been a Judge of a High Court or a
District Judge, or
(b) is qualified for appointment as a Judge of a High
Court:
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Provided that the appointment to a Tribunal of any person
not qualified under part (a) shall be made in consultation
with the High Court of the Province in which the Tribunal
has or is intended to have, its usual place of sitting."
It will be seen from the aforesaid provisions that the
Amending Act, which came into force on August 28, 1956,
changed the constitution of a tribunal to some extent and
conferred a power for the first time on the Government to
transfer a proceeding pending before a tribunal to another
tribunal; or in the case of a proceeding under s. 33 or 33A
pending before a tribunal to another tribunal or to a Labour
Court. Section 30 of the Amending Act expressly saves a
pending proceeding before a tribunal constituted under the
Act before the Amending Act came into force and directs that
such dispute shall be adjudicated and the proceeding
disposed of by that tribunal after the commencement of the
Amending Act as if that Act had not been passed. A combined
and fair reading of the aforesaid provisions, it is argued,
was that s. 33B, inserted in the Act by the Amending Act,
was prospective in operations i.e., it would apply only to
proceedings initiated in the tribunal constituted Under the
amended Act and that proceedings pending before the
tribunals constituted under the Act before the commencement
of the Amending Act would be disposed of as if the Amending
Act had not been passed. The Parliament, presumably to
clarify the position, brought out another Amending Act
styled the Industrial Disputes (Amendment) Act, 1957 (18 of
1957), whereunder among other things, a new definition of "
Tribunal " was given in substitution of that in s. 2(r) of
the Act. The substituted definition reads:
" ’Tribunal’ means an Industrial Tribunal constituted under
section 7A and includes an Industrial
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Tribunal constituted before the 10th day of March, 1957,
under this Act."
Sub-section (2) of s. I of the Amending Act 18 of 1957 says
that s. 2 shall be deemed to have come into force on the
10th day of March, 1957. The result is that section 33B
should be read along with the definition of a " Tribunal "
inserted by the Amendment Act 18 of 1957, as if that
definition was in the Act from March 10, 1957. If that
definition of a " Tribunal " ’be read in place of the word
,Tribunal" in s. 33B, the relevant part of that section
reads:
" (1) The appropriate Government may, by order in writing
and for reasons to be stated therein, withdraw any
proceeding under this Act pending before a Tribunal
constituted before the 10th day of March, 1957, and transfer
the same to another Tribunal constituted under section 7A of
the Act."
So construed it follows that in respect of proceedings
pending in a tribunal constituted before the 10th day of
March, 1957, the Government has the power to transfer them
from that date to any other tribunal. It is said that this
construction would make s. 30 of the Amending Act 36 of 1956
otiose or nugatory. That section contained only a saving
clause and it was not inserted in the Act; it served its
purpose, and even if it ceased to have any operative force
after the Amendment of 1957, that circumstance cannot have
any bearing on the impact of the amendment of the definition
of " Tribunal " on the provisions of s. 33B of the Act. In
the present case, the Government made the order of transfer
on April 9, 1957, i.e., after s. 2 of Amendment Act 18 of
1957 was deemed to have come into force. It must,
therefore, be held that the Government acted well within its
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powers in transferring the dispute pending before the Second
Industrial Tribunal, to the Fifth Industrial Tribunal.
The second contention, namely, that the Award of 1951 was
not terminated in accordance with law, does not appear to
have been pressed before the Tribunal. The governing
section is s. 19(6) which says:
" Notwithstanding the expiry of the period of operation
under sub-section (3), the award shall
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continue to be binding on the parties until a period of two
months has elapsed from the date on which notice is given by
any party bound by the award to the other party or parties
intimating its intention to terminate the award’."
In the first written-statement filed by the Company before
the Tribunal, no plea was taken based upon s. 19(6) of the
Act. In the second written-statement filed by the Company
on December 20, 1956, a contention was raised to the effect
that the award dated June 21, 1951, was not terminated under
s. 19(6) of the Act, that the said award was binding
between the parties and therefore the reference was bad in
law. Notwithstanding the said allegation, the award dis-
closes that no issue was raised on that count and no
argument was advanced in support thereof. This attitude
might have been adopted by the Company either because it did
not think fit to rely upon a technical point but had chosen
to get a decision of the Tribunal on merits, or it might be
that there was no basis for the contention, as the company
might have received notice under the said section. Though
it may not be quite relevant, it may be mentioned that even
in 1951 when the dispute between the parties was referred to
the Industrial Tribunal, though a similar contention was
open to the Company and indeed was suggested by the
Tribunal, it moved the Tribunal to give an award on the
merits of the matter. If this plea had been seriously
pressed, the Tribunal would have raised a separate issue and
the Union would have been in a position to establish that
notice had been served on the Company as required by s.
19(6) of the Act. As the question raised depends upon
elucidation of further facts, we do not think that we would
be justified in allowing the Company to raise the plea
before us, and we, therefore, do not permit them to do so.
The fourth point turns on the construction of the terms of
the agreement entered into between the parties on September
15, 1954. The dispute between the parties had an earlier
origin and apart from the
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146
present reference, there were as many as four references and
four awards, and the last of them was dated April 3, 1951.
The Company preferred an appeal against that award to the
Labour Appellate Tribunal-, Calcutta, which, with some
modification, confirmed the award of the Tribunal on August
30, 1957. That award as modified by the Appellate Tribunal
fixed the basic wages and the rate of dearness allowance
payable to the employees. The employees were not satisfied
with the award and they placed before the. Company a new
charter of demands claiming higher rates of dearness
allowance and wages, but the dispute was compromised and the
parties entered into an agreement dated September 15, 1954,
by virtue of which, the Company introduced the incremental
scale in the wage structure. As regards the dearness
allowance, it was stated in cl. 1 1 of the agreement as
follows:
"The existing rate of D. A. will prevail unless there is a
substantial change in the working class cost of living
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index,in which case the rate will be suitably adjusted."
On the construction of this clause depends the question of
the Union’s right to claim enhanced dearness allowance. It
is common case that if the cost of living index in the year
1951 was taken as the basis, there was a fall in the rate of
working class cost, of living index in 1957. On the other
hand, if the cost of living index in 1954 was the criterion,
there was a substantial increase in the cost of living index
in 1957. The question, therefore, is what did the parties
intend to agree by the aforesaid clause in the agreement.
To ascertain the intention of the parties, we should con-
sider the circumstances under which the said agreement was
entered into between the parties. Exhibit 6 is the said
agreement. The preamble to the agreement reads :
" The Company and the Union came to a settlement in respect
of the Pay Scales and Grades in the Charter of Demands dated
25th June, 1953, at the intervention of Shri A. R. Ghosh,
Asstt. Labour Commissioner during the Conciliation
proceedings ending on the 30th August, 1954."
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The preamble indicates that-the entire situation obtaining
on the date of the agreement -was reviewed and the parties
agreed to the terms of the settlement mentioned therein.
Under clause (1) of the agreement, pay scale and grade as
given in annexure B was agreed upon for the time being for a
period of three years as an experimental measure, to be
reviewed, modified or suspended or withdrawn after three
years, depending upon the Company’s business and financial
condition. By el. (2), the employees agreed not to raise
any dispute involving any further financial burden on the
Company during the next three years in respect of pay scale
and grade. Clauses (3) to (5) deal with increments and the
age of retirement. Clause (6) provides for the piece-rated
(contract) workers in respect of their increments. Clause
(7) is in respect of increment for the daily-rated workers.
Clause (8) is in respect of the grade and scale of pay and
increments of Chemists, Engineers and Doctors, etc. Clause
(9) is to the effect that the employees who would be made
permanent thence forward would be grouped under two
divisions for the purposes of giving effect to the scale of
pay. Clause (11) which we have already extracted above
relates to the dearness allowance. Clause (12) says "
barring the question of bonus for 1358 and 1359 B. S.the
Union withdraws its claim in respect of other items in the
Charter of Demands dated 25th June, 1953."
We have given the agreement in extenso only for the purpose
of showing that all the disputes between the parties arising
out of the charter of demands dated June, 25, 1953, were
settled between them and reduced to writing. The agreement
was self-contained and started a new chapter regulating the
relationship of the parties to the dispute in respect of
matters covered by it. The award must be deemed to have
been superseded by the new agreement. In this context the
crucial words " existing rate of D. A. ", on which both the
learned Counsel relied, could have only one meaning. Do the
words " existing rate " refer to the date of the agreement
or to the date of the award ? It is true that the existing
rate of D. A. had its origin in the award and was made to
prevail
148
under the agreement, that is to say that the rate was
accepted by the parties as reasonable on the date of "the
agreement, till there was a substantial change in the
working class cost of living index. If the contention of
the learned Counsel for the Company should prevail, the
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agreement would not be self-contained, but only to be
construed as modifying the earlier award to some extent. We
are satisfied that in regard to matters covered by it, the
agreement replaced the earlier award and therefore the date
of the agreement is the crucial one for ascertaining whether
there was substantial change in the working class cost of
living index in the year 1957. We, therefore, reject this
contention.
Contentions 3, 5 and 6 raise pure questions of fact. The
Tribunal, on the consideration of the entire material placed
before it, came to the conclusion that there was change of
circumstances which entitled the employees to claim an
increase in their dearness allowance. It has also fixed the
rate of increase in the dearness allowance on the basis of
the rise in the cost of living index. In doing so, it also
took into consideration the difficulties facing the industry
and the repercussion of the rise in the dearness allowance
on the consumers in general. Having regard to the overall
picture, it came to the conclusion that full neutralisation
of the deficiency as a result of rise in the cost of living
index by dearness allowance could not be permitted and
therefore allowed them only 75 per cent. of the increase in
the dearness allowance to which they would have otherwise
been entitled on the basis of the rise in the cost of living
index. The finding given by the Tribunal is one on fact and
we do not see any permissible ground for interference with
it in this appeal by special leave.
Before closing, one point strenuously pressed upon us by the
learned Counsel for the Company which is really another
attempt to attack the finding of fact given by the Tribunal
from different angle must be mentioned; it was that the
Tribunal wrongly relied upon Exhibit 3, corrected on the
basis of the information given by the State Statistical
Bureau, West Bengal, for ascertaining the working class cost
of living index since August 1954 up to March 1957. On the
149
basis of Exhibit 3, the Tribunal held that the working class
cost of living index stood at 344.1 in August 1954 and it
rose to 400.6 in May 1957, with the result that there was a
rise of 56 points, a substantial rise in the cost of living
index. Exhibit 3 certainly supports the finding of the
Tribunal. The learned Counsel for the Company points out
with reference to the relevant entries in the Monthly
Statistical Digest, West Bengal, that the said figures
relate only to working class menials and the corresponding
entries in regard to the working class cost of living index
do not indicate so much increase as in the case of the
menial class. Learned Counsel has also taken us through the
relevant figures. The relevant entries in the Monthly
Statistical Digest were not filed before the Tribunal.
Indeed when the Union’s witness, Shri Satyaranjan Sen, was
examined before the Tribunal, he was not cross-examined with
a view to elicit information that Exhibit 3 did not relate
to the working class cost of living index. When Shri
Chatterjee, the Assistant Manager of the Company, who was
examined after Shri Sen, gave evidence, he not only did not
object to the entries in Exhibit 3 but stated that he was
not aware of any substantial increase in the working class
cost of living index and complained that similar entries for
all the relevant years had not been produced. Even before
the Tribunal it does not appear that any argument was
advanced contesting the relevancy of Exhibit 3 on the ground
that it did not refer to the working class cost of living
index. In the circumstances, we do not think that we are
justified to allow the learned Counsel -for the Company to
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make out a new case for the first time before us, upsetting
the Tribunal’s basis for calculation and involving further
and different calculations.
In the result, we confirm the award of the Tribunal and
dismiss the appeal with costs.
The learned Counsel, appearing for the Union, did not press
the appeal No. 164 of 1958, filed by the Union, and
therefore it is also dismissed with costs.
Appeals dismissed.
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