United Employees'' Association vs Government of India and Others

R. Rajendra Babu, J.—Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned counsel appearing for respondents 3 and 4.

The petitioner, the United Employees Association, represented by its General Secretary, filed this O.P. for directing the 2nd respondent, the Regional Labour Commissioner (Central), Ernakulam, to conduct a referendum as requested in Ext.P1 at the earliest, Ext.P1 is a request made before the Assistant Labour Commissioner by the Cochin Steamer Agents'' Association. The Cochin Steamer Agents'' Association is an association registered under the Travancore-Cochin (Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies) Registration Act. The request made before the Assistant Labour Commissioner was to take steps to conduct a referendum so that the strength of each union under the USA Pool can be assessed. Ext.P1 request also would reveal that the request was made due to the compulsion or pressure exerted from the part of the petitioner union. The recital in Ext.P1 reads:

"The new Unions in order to show their strength had made certain demonstrations on June 2, surrounding the office of the Cochin Steamer Agents'' Association and created a tense situation wherein the management were forced to agree to request you to conduct a referendum to ascertain the strength of the respective unions."

The above recital would indicate that because of the pressure exerted on the Cochin Steamer Agents Association, such a request was made.

The learned counsel appearing for the 4th respondent submitted that the prayer for conducting a referendum cannot be allowed in view of the decision of a Division Bench of this Court in Chackola Spinning & Weaving Mill v. Chackola T.M.T. Union 2002 II LLJ 33. Paragraph 4 of the above judgment would make it clear that the petitioner has no right to approach this Court by filing an original petition for directing the conduct of a referendum at p. 34 of LLJ:

"4. It is a fundamental principle of administration of justice that "where there is a right, there will be a remedy". The source of right can be statute, custom or contract. In the case at hand, the writ petitioner to succeed should show that the second respondent has got a duty to hold referendum to ascertain the relative strength of the trade unions for the purpose of granting recognition. If there is such a duty cast on the second respondent Labour Commissioner, it may create a corresponding right in the writ petitioner which is a trade union of the workmen under the fourth respondent. In the absence of any such right, the petitioner is not entitled to get any relief from this Court."

The Cochin Steamer Agents'' Association being a private association, it was not competent to request the Labour Commissioner to make a referendum and the 2nd respondent cannot be directed to conduct a referendum as prayed for. Hence this O.P. has only to be dismissed.

In the result this O.P. is dismissed without prejudice to the right of the petitioner to work out alternate remedies in accordance with law, if available.