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Judgment
R. Basant, J.—Petitioner has come to this Court with this petition claiming issue of directions to the first Respondent to afford protection to the Petitioner to get the work of loading and unloading in his petrol bunk conducted by his regular workmen without any illegal obstruction from the second Respondent. The third Respondent is the Kerala Headload Workers Welfare Board.
Admittedly the area in question is not a scheme covered area. None of the employees of the Petitioner are registered headload workers. The second Respondent has already raised a dispute before the labour authorities as evidenced by Ext.R2(b) about the right of the members of the second Respondent to get the headload work done by them. No decision has been taken in the matter so far.
When this petition came up on 5-8-2010 the Bench which dealt with the matter had passed the following interim order:
There will be an interim order directing first Respondent to grant effective protection to the Petitioner to carry out unloading work in the IBP pump at Manali Bye pass, Calicut Road, Palakkad by engaging regular employees of the Petitioner without interference from the second Respondent, for a period of one month.
It was later extended from time to time.
The learned Counsel for the second Respondent submits that in as much as a dispute has been raised before the labour authorities, the labour authorities may be directed to get the dispute resolved in accordance with the provisions of Section 21 of the Kerala Headload Workers Act. The Petitioner has a contention that the work of loading and unloading lubricants being purely incidental, provisions of the Act are not applicable to the Petitioner.
Learned Counsel for the third Respondent as also the learned Govt. Pleader submit that the dispute deserves to be resolved in accordance with Section 21 of the Act.
Having considered all the relevant inputs we are satisfied that the interim order issued on 5-8-2010 can be made absolute with the specific observation that the same shall be subject to final decision that is being taken in proceedings u/s 21 of the Kerala Headload Workers Act.
In the result
a) This petition is allowed.
b) The interim order dated 5-8-2010 extracted above is made absolute.
c) It is made clear that the directions hereby issued shall be subject to resolution of the disputes between the Petitioner and the second Respondent in accordance with the procedure u/s 21 of the Kerala Headload Workers Act.