A limitation-based dismissal under Section 2A does not bar an independent Section 10(1B)(d) proceeding.

The petitioner challenged orders of the Second Labour Court, including an order condoning delay in the present proceeding and a later order rejecting the petitioner’s application to contest its maintainability.

The dispute arose from respondent no. 4’s claim that, after illness, the petitioner did not provide him light duty.

In 2001, the Deputy Labour Commissioner found that the petitioner had not terminated his employment and that the individual dispute was not an industrial dispute under Section 2A.

Respondent no. 4’s earlier proceeding under Section 2A(2) was dismissed in 2015 as time-barred under Section 2A(3).

He later pursued a separate proceeding against the petitioner, registered as Case No. 01 of 2018 under Section 10(1B)(d).

1. Whether the earlier dismissal of respondent no. 4’s Section 2A(2) proceeding barred the separate proceeding under Section 10(1B)(d).

2. Whether the Labour Court’s impugned orders warranted interference under Article 226.

Section 2A(2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 permits an individual workman to apply directly to the Labour Court or Tribunal in a dispute concerning discharge, dismissal, retrenchment or other termination; Section 2A(3) requires such an application to be made within three years of the relevant termination.

The Court treated proceedings under Sections 2A(2) and 10(1B)(d) as separate and independent remedies.

Although the parties cited authorities concerning res judicata and the scope of writ review, the Court’s stated basis for decision was the distinct statutory character of the two proceedings.

The earlier Section 2A(2) case had been dismissed on limitation, without adjudication on the merits.

The present case, however, was brought under Section 10(1B)(d), and the Court found it to be a separate proceeding from the earlier case.

On that basis, it upheld the Labour Court’s orders and found no ground for interference.

It dismissed WPA 11393 of 2026 and directed the Labour Court to proceed in accordance with law.