Union Carbide Karmachari Sangh and Another vs Union of India (UOI) and Others

S.K. Jha, C.J.

Three reliefs have been sought in this writ petition, the first and the primary one being the vires and validity of Section 25O of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The other two reliefs are for reasonable compensation or to provide alternative employment to the employees of the Union Carbide (India) Limited, respondent No. 3, or to pay compensation equal to the wages of the employees concerned. In so far as the latter two reliefs are concerned, they have already been decided in principle by the Supreme Court and we need not traverse those fields.

In so far as relief No. 1 is concerned with regard to the validity of the provisions of Section 25O of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, the matter stands concluded by a Division Bench decision of this Court in the case of Straw Products Ltd. Vs. Union of India (UOI) and Others, wherein His Lordship Mr. Justice J.S. Verma, Acting Chief Justice (at that time) speaking for the Bench, held that Section 25O(2) was in the wider interests of general public which had also to be taken into account while in Section 25N, interests of the workmen were to be considered. It was further held that none of the reasons given in the order of the State Government refusing permission to effect closure/retrenchment were extraneous, irrelevant or non-existent. The scope of an enquiry in a writ petition is limited to the questions as to whether the ultimate opinion formed by the State Government is vitiated on account of ignoring any relevant factor or taking into account any irrelevant, extraneous or non-existent factor so as to disclose any error apparent on face of the record. The High Court cannot in its writ jurisdiction delve into the dark crevices of the files of the State Secretariat for the purpose of probing into and examining the correctness of the conclusion relating to the adequacy of reasons unless there is an error apparent on the face of record, which there is none.

We, accordingly, are constrained to dismiss the writ petition but without any costs.