Federal Mogul Bearing India Ltd. vs State of H.P. and others

Deepak Gupta, J.—These two petitions are being disposed of by a common order. The petitioner (hereinafter referred to as the employer) in both the petitions has challenged the order dated 30th June, 2011 whereby the Labour Court rejected the application moved by the employer for trying the reference No. 58 of 2008 alongwith application No. 37 of 2008. The employer in both the cases is the same. The employees are also the same. Therefore, without going into the question as to whether the order is legally right or wrong, I am of the considered view that it would be in the interest of justice that both reference No. 58 of 2008 as well as the application No. 37 of 2008 are listed on the same dates and are heard and decided together so as to avoid any conflicting orders or multiplicity of the proceedings. I have been informed that certain applications have been filed by the employer u/s 33(1) of the Industrial Disputes Act seeking permission of the Labour Court to take disciplinary action against the employees. These applications should also be heard and tried alongwith reference No. 58 of 2008 and application No. 37 of 2008.

2 It is sad state of affairs that the reference and application filed in the year 2008 by the employees are still pending. Therefore, the Labour Court is directed to dispose of the same latest by 31st March, 2012. If necessary, the Labour Court shall conduct day to day hearing in the matters to ensure that the reference petition and application No. 37 of 2008 filed by the workmen as well as the applications filed by the employer seeking permission of the Labour Court to take disciplinary action are decided together latest by 31st March, 2012. Both these petitions are disposed of in the aforesaid terms. No costs.