U.P. State Electricity Board and Another vs Presiding Officer, Labour Court, Gorakhpur and Another

Anjani Kumar, J.—By means of the present writ petition, the petitioner-employer, U.P. State Electricity Board has challenged the award of the Labour Court, Gorakhpur, dated 29.9.1997, passed in Adjudication Case No. 137 of 1982, Annexure-1 to the writ petition. After hearing learned counsel for the parties, on 21.1.2002, I passed an order allowing the writ petition in part for the reasons to be recorded later on. Now here are the reasons.

The petitioner-employer had terminated the services of respondent No. 2, the concerned workman on 3.7.1980 and the dispute was referred to labour court by the State Government vide its order dated 21.8.1982. During the pendency of the proceedings before the labour court, the labour court has passed two orders, one dated 6.9.1987 and another dated 28.3.1989, which were challenged by the employer by filing two separate writ petitions before this Court being Writ Petition Nos. 2075 of 1988 and 14260 of 1989. By the separate judgments, these two writ petitions were allowed and the orders dated 6.9.1987 and 28.3.1989 have been quashed.

For the reasons and facts stated in the aforestated writ petitions, since the aforesaid two awards/orders have been quashed, this award/order also deserves to be quashed to the extent that now the labour court is directed to decide the adjudication case, referred to above, after affording opportunity of hearing to the employer to adduce the evidence so that the employer may demonstrate by evidence that may be produced before the labour court or, are in existence on the records of the labour court. In this view of the matter, the award dated 29.9.1997, passed by Labour Court, Gorakhpur. Annexure-1 to the writ petition, is quashed. The labour court is directed to decide the same in view of the directions issued in earlier two writ petitions in accordance with law.

For the reasons stated above, this writ petition is allowed in part. The award dated 29.9.1997, is hereby quashed to the extent stated above. However, parties shall bear their own costs.