January 15, 2018
A Bench of Supreme Court Judges Justice R.K. Agrawal and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre remanded back a Special Leave Appeal filed by the aggrieved employee of a Cooperative Society in Smt. K.A. Annama v. The Secretary, Cochin Cooperative Hospitality Society Ltd, Civil Appeal No. 197 of 2018 to the High Court of Kerala.
The facts of the case are the respondent is the Cooperative Society registered under the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act, 1969. The appellant was an employee of the respondent-Society. By order dated 22.03.2005, the respondent-Society dismissed the appellant from service.
The appellant, felt aggrieved of her dismissal order, filed a complaint with the
State Government against the respondent-Society under the Industrial Dispute
Act, 1947. The conciliation having failed, the appropriate Government made an
industrial reference to the Labour Court, Ernakulum under Section 10 of the Act
for deciding the legality and correctness of the appellant's dismissal and to
pass appropriate consequential orders, if any.
The Labour Court, by award dated 23.09.2009 answered the reference in
appellant's favour. It was held that the dismissal order is bad in law and was
accordingly set aside. It was held that during the pendency of the reference,
the appellant has attained the age of superannuation on 31.05.2007, therefore,
she was entitled to get all monetary and other service benefits as are
permissible in law.
The respondent, felt aggrieved of the award of the Labour Court, filed Writ
Petition (Civil) No.18354 of 2010 in the High Court of Kerala and questioned its
legality and correctness. The question was "whether a service dispute arising
between the Cooperative Society's Employee and his Employer is capable of being
tried by the forum prescribed under the KCS Act or by the machinery provided
under the Industrial Disputes Act or it is capable of being tried under both the
Acts leaving the aggrieved person to select one forum under any of the Acts of
his choice out of the two for getting his/her service dispute decided by such
forum."
This question was considered by different benches in different occasions. So far
as the majority view of three Judges is concerned, it held that the service
dispute arising between the Co-operative Society's Employee and the Employer
(Co-operative Society) is triable only by the forum prescribed under the KCS
Act, 1969 and the jurisdiction of the ID Act is excluded and barred to try such
service dispute.
So far as the minority view of two Judges is concerned, it held that such
service dispute is triable under both the Acts, i.e., the KCS Act and the
Industrial Disputes Act. In other words, it held that both the Acts possess and
enjoy concurrent jurisdiction to decide such service dispute and it is for the
aggrieved person to choose the forum of his/her choice out of the two Acts to
get the service dispute settled subject to proving the ingredients of the
definition of "Workman", "Industrial Dispute" and the cooperative Society to be
the "Industry" as defined under the ID Act, if he/she desires to invoke the
jurisdiction of the ID Act for deciding the service dispute Relying upon the
majority view, the writ petition filed by the respondent(employer) in the case
at hand was allowed by the learned Single Judge, resulting in setting aside of
the award of the Labour Court, giving rise to filing of this appeal by way of
special leave before Supreme Court by the employee.
The main question raised in the appeal is weather the Industrial Disputes Act or Kerala Cooperative Societies Act is competent to decide the case. The court said that:
"in our view, the Labour Court in this case was competent to decide the service
dispute raised by the Employee (appellant herein) under the ID Act. The case is
accordingly remanded to the writ Court to decide the respondent's writ petition
for examining the legality and correctness of the award of the Labour Court on
merits in accordance with law."
Supreme Court allowed the appeal and set aside the judgment of High Court.
Tweet
Read the order of Supreme Court of India in Smt. K.A. Annama v. The Secretary, Cochin Cooperative Hospitality Society Ltd dated 12.1.2018