For dismissals requiring Section 33(2)(b) approval, Section 2A limitation runs from the date of approval.

The respondent, a driver employed by the appellant Corporation, was dismissed following a fatal bus accident and a domestic enquiry that found charges of negligence proved.

He raised an industrial dispute under Section 2A of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

The Labour Court held that the charges were not proved, but dismissed the claim as time-barred.

The Single Judge allowed the driver’s writ petition, holding that the dispute was within time and directing reinstatement with back wages, continuity of service and attendant benefits. The Corporation appealed.

The driver had reached superannuation by the time the Labour Court made its award.

1. Whether the driver’s industrial dispute was barred by the limitation period under Section 2A(ii) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, or whether time ran from the grant of approval under Section 33(2)(b).

2. Whether the Single Judge was justified in granting reinstatement-related benefits, including back wages and continuity of service, when the Labour Court had found the charges unproved and the driver had since superannuated.

Section 2A(ii) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 prescribes a three-year limitation period for raising an individual industrial dispute of the kind at issue.

Where an employer seeks approval of a dismissal under Section 33(2)(b) of the Act, the dismissal takes effect subject to that approval; the Court held that the limitation period for challenging the dismissal is reckoned from the date approval is granted.

The judgment cites no other precedent.

The Court upheld the Single Judge’s conclusion that limitation ran from the grant of approval under Section 33(2)(b), rather than from the earlier dismissal, and therefore rejected the Corporation’s limitation objection.

It also noted that the Labour Court had found the charges unproved and that the Corporation had not appealed that finding; accordingly, there was no basis to remand the matter for reconsideration of punishment or to sustain dismissal.

Because the driver had superannuated, the Court approved the direction to calculate benefits only up to the date of superannuation.

The Corporation was directed to pay the monetary benefits ordered by the Single Judge, calculated with continuity of service and attendant benefits up to the driver’s superannuation, within four months.