Patna High Court: Shivaji Pandey, J. allowed the writ application to the extent that the impugned order was remanded back to the competent authority to consider the claim of the petitioner afresh and take a decision in accordance with law.
The petitioner challenged the order, whereby the competent authority had refused to refer to the industrial dispute raised by the petitioner for adjudication on the ground that the disputant was engaged in the capacity of Sales Manager, and as such he would not qualify to be a workman within the definition given in Section 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The petitioner was appointed as Trainee Sales Team Manager, but he claimed to be a workman. A conciliation proceeding was held, but it failed to materialize and ultimately the dispute was denied from being referred to an Industrial Tribunal.
The Court held that the authority while exercising the power of conciliation and consideration to referring the dispute raised exercises a power which is administrative in nature and thus, it cannot exercise the power of adjudication and as such, cannot adjudicate the status of an employee whether he is a workman or not. It was emphasized by the Court that the appropriate authority while refusing to refer the dispute to the Tribunal cannot embark upon adjudicatory mechanism.
The Court was of the view that that authority had usurped the power of a quasi-judicial body and hence, the impugned order stood quashed. The matter was remanded back to the competent authority to consider the claim of the petitioner afresh and take a decision in accordance with law within a period of eight weeks from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order.
In view of the above-noted facts, the instant petition was allowed accordingly.[Rahul Muzaffarpuri v. Union of India, 2019 SCC OnLine Pat 1264, decided on 05-07-2019]
