IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN
AT JAIPUR BENCH, JAIPUR
O R D E R
D.B. Civil Special Appeal No.903 of 2000
IN
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.5973 of 1997.
The General Manager, R.S.R.T.C. Jaipur
VERSUS
Shri Ghanshyam Singh son of Shri Hari Singh and Another
Date of Order :::: 19/11/2009
Hon'ble Mr. Justice Dalip Singh
Hon'ble Mr. Justice K.S. Chaudhari
Mr. Vinod Sharma, For
Mr. Ashok Bansal, Counsel for the Appellant-Petitioner
Mr. Vigyan Shah, For
Mr. Mahendra Shah, Counsel for the Respondents
***
BY THE COURT :
We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.
This special appeal has been filed against the judgment dated 3rd July, 2000 passed by the learned Single Judge in S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.5973 of 1997 by which the writ petition filed by the petitioner-appellant against the order of the learned Judge, Labour Court dated 26.04.1997 was dismissed.
Facts, in brief are that the workman filed a writ petition before this Court challenging interalia the order of his termination dated 06.08.1980. The said writ petition filed by the workman came to be allowed and this Court while allowing the writ petition in its operative portion passed the following directions :
Consequently, the writ petition is allowed. The orders dated 08.06.1980 (Exhibit-18) and 30.08.1982 (Exhibit-20) are declared illegal and hereby quashed. The petitioner shall be entitled to reinstatement with other consequential benefits except the actual wages for the period between the date of termination of service of the petitioner and the date of this order. He shall be free to avail remedy under Section 33(c) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 for back wages.
After the decision of the writ petition with the aforesaid directions, the petitioner-appellant preferred an appeal before he Division Bench, but the out come of that appeal has not been brought on record. The workman, on the other hand, on the basis of the aforesaid directions moved an application before the learned Judge, Labour Court under Section 33 (2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 for computation of the amount of wages.
The learned Labour Court having issued notices, reply was filed by the petitioner-appellant to the application submitted by the workman and after considering the material on record, the learned Labour Court passed the order dated 26.04.1997 computing the wages due to the workman for which the petitioner-appellant was held liable in terms of the judgment of this Court dated 23.11.1992.
Being aggrieved by the aforesaid order passed by the learned Judge, Labour Court preferred the writ petition before this Court and interalia submitted that as per the directions by this Court the appellant was not liable to pay any amount towards the wages for the period 06.08.1980 up to the date of judgment.
Learned Single Judge the submissions on behalf of the petitioner and held that since the relief claimed in the writ petition was based upon the interpretation of the judgment of this Court dated November 23rd 1992, which the petitioner-appellant has failed to produced. It was not possible to consider the submissions of the appellant. Even so in the facts and circumstances of the case, the learned Single Judge came to the conclusion that the observations made in the operative portion of the judgment dated 23.11.1992, which has been quoted, here-in-above, the learned Single Judge while deciding the said writ petition had permitted the workman to move an application under Section 33 (2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 only for the purposes of computation of the back wages, which would require an adjudication also whether the workman concerned was during the aforesaid period after his termination gainfully employed or not, since this question could not have been determined while deciding the writ petition, therefore, while refusing to pass an order for payment of the actual wages, the learned Single Judge while deciding the writ petition vide judgment dated 23.11.1992 afforded an opportunity to the workman to move an application under Section 33 (2) of the Act before the learned Labour Court. The learned Single Judge, therefore, held that there was no legality in the interpretation made by the learned Judge, Labour Court while deciding the application and rejecting the contention of the petitioner-appellant.
Against the aforesaid decision of the learned Single Judge dismissing the writ petition vide judgment dated 3rd July 2000, the present special appeal has been preferred.
We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.
It may be stated here at the out set that the learned counsel for the appellant raised much the same contentions, which were raised before the learned Single Judge in this special appeal against the order passed by the learned Judge, Labour Court on the application under Section 33 (2) of the Act.
Learned counsel for the appellant contended that this Court while deciding the writ petition under the judgment dated 23.11.1992 the operative portion, which has been quoted above had clearly while declaring and quashing the impugned orders directed that the petitioner would not be entitled to actual wages for the aforesaid period from the date of termination to the date of the order i.e. 23.11.1992 and, therefore, the learned Single Judge committed an error in dismissing the writ petition and refusing to set aside the order passed by the learned Judge, Labour Court.
Learned counsel for the respondent-workman, on the other hand,contended that while deciding the writ petition under the judgment dated 23.11.1992 this Court taking into account the fact that the period from 1980-1992 was a considerably long period and the fact as to whether or not the workman was gainfully employed so as to be entitled to the amount of back wages had refused to pass the order regarding the same while deciding the writ petition. However, it was left open for the workman to move an application before the learned Judge, Labour Court for computation of the same under Section 33 (c) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. We, therefore, submits that the judgment of the learned Single Judge in this behalf does not call for any interference.
With a view to appreciate the aforesaid contentions, we have gone the contents of the writ petition as well as the contents of the application submitted by the workman under Section 33 (2) of the Act before the learned Judge, Labour court and the reply thereto, which are Annexure 1 & 2 to the writ petition.
It would be relevant for deciding the appeal in the light of the contention, which has been raised to take into consideration the pleadings of the parties in respect of the application under Section 33 (2) of the Act as well as its reply.
The relevant portion of the application, more particularly Paragraphs 3, 4, 5 and 6 reads as follows :
A perusal of the above pleadings go to show that the appellant never raised any objectiions to the maintainability of the application under Section 33 (2) of the Act on the ground that the learned Single Judge had disallowed the claim with regard to wages for the period 08.06.1990 to 23.11.1992 and, therefore, the question of moving the application under Section 33 (c) (2) of the Act did not arise in the light of the directions contains in the judgment dated 23.11.1992, which has been quoted, here-in-above.
Thus, we have seen that the present contentions, which were raised in the writ petition and during the course of hearing before the learned Judge, Labour Court are an after thought. All that the petitioner-appellant submitted by way of reply was that the application is not maintainable on account of the fact that the appeal against the judgment of the learned Single Judge dated 23.11.19992 had been filed by the petitioner-appellant and which is pending. The other submission, which was made was that the appellant would be entitled to claim the back wages {for the period 08.06.1980 to 23.11.1992/date of reinstatement} only in case the workman is able to prove that he was not gainfully employed.
Apart from these two objections no other objections on the basis of the interpretation, which the petitioner-appellant now seeks to give to the directions contained in the judgment dated 23.11.1992 finds place.
If there was any doubt regarding the contradictions in the two directions as submitted by the appellant contained in the judgment dated 23.11.1992 the remedy of the petitioner-appellant was to have approached the learned Single Judge, who decide the writ petition for seeking a clarification/reviewing of the order dated 23.11.1992. The petitioner-appellant not having done so would leave to the conclusion that the parties were well aware on the basis of what transpire during the dictation of the judgment in the Court regarding the relief, which the Court had ordered in the writ petition and there was no doubt in the mind of either of the parties of what directions the Court had given while allowing the writ petition.
The submission of the learned counsel for the appellant is that such a direction could not have been given cannot be entertained in the present writ petition and the appeal, which is as a consequence of and for the purposes of the execution of the directions contained in the judgment in the writ petition decided on 23.11.1992 and in the present writ petition no relief by way of declaration or quashion directions contained in the judgment dated 23.11.1992 can be passed.
In that view of the matter, we do not find any infermity in the judgment of the learned Single Judge or the order passed by the learned Judge, Labour court made in the writ petition dated 26.04.1997.
Consequently, the special appeal stands dismissed.
In the facts and circumstances of the case, there shall be no order as to costs.
Consequent upon dismissal of the special appeal, the stay application, filed therewith does not survive and the same is also dismissed.
(K.S. Chaudhari), J. (Dalip Singh), J.
ashok/