Madras High Court
Management Of Kadachira Motor Service ... vs State Of Madras And Ors. on 25 October, 1956
Equivalent citations: AIR1957MAD700, AIR 1957 MADRAS 700, 1970 MADLW 258 (1957-58) 12 FJR 389, (1957-58) 12 FJR 389
ORDER Rajagopalan, J.
1. Whether there was an industrial dispute as defined by the Act to justify a reference by the Govt. to the Industrial Tribunal for adjudication is the question which the petitioners want to be determin ed at this stage. The Validity of the reference under Section 10(1)(C) of the Industrial Disputes Act by the Government cannot be challenged by an ap plication for the issue of a writ of cert orari, be cause in making the order of reference, the Govern ment wa's only doing a ministerial or administra tive act. It has been held in more cases than one that despite the fact that the validity of the refer ence itself cannot be challenged by an application for the issue of a writ of certiorari to quash the order of reference, the question whether a given dispute is an industrial dispute has yet to be decid ed.
It is primarily for the Industrial Tribunal to decide that issue. If there is no industrial dispute at all as defined by the Act the Industrial Tribunal would obviously have no further jurisdiction to adjudicate any dispute. Possibly, it may be desir-[able for the Industrial Tribunal to deckle that issue as a preliminary issue. But at this stage neither a writ of prohibition can issue; nor a writ of mandamus can issue. As proceedings are pending, the In(sic)us-trial Tribunal, as I said, has jurisdiction to decide the question whether an industrial dispute existed.
2. The petition is dismissed.