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1. Venkatiah, respondent 1, was an employee of the Buckingham and Carnatic Company, Ltd. He was granted six days leave with effect from 10 January 1957. Allowing for the holidays that followed he should have joined duty on 19 January 1957. But he did not do so. Nor did he apply for extension of leave as required by the standing orders of the company. Standing Order 8(ii) of the company provides that any employee who absents himself for eight consecutive working days without leave shall be deemed to have left the company's service without notice thereby terminating his contract of service. The standing order, however, provides that if the employee gives an explanation to the satisfaction of the management, his absence shall be converted into leave without pay or dearness allowance. If it is also proved to the satisfaction of the management that the absence was due to sickness, then the employee is entitled to have his absence converted into medical leave for such period as the employee is eligible. On 11 March 1957 Venkatiah wrote to the company that after reaching his village he was laid up with fever and dysentery and that he was under the treatment of the Civil Assistant Surgeon of the Government Hospital, Kanigiri. He also stated that after returning from his village he reported to the medical officer of the Employees' State Insurance, Perambur. who referred him to the medical officer of the company. He therefore prayed that he might be given leave in accordance with the medical certificate he enclosed. It is necessary here to mention that in the claim filed by the labour union before the labour court it was stated that Venkatiah "underwent treatment in the Government Hospital, Kanigiri," from 15 January to 7 March 1959. However, the medical certificate which Venkatiah produced does not say that he was in hospital. All that it says is that he was suffering from malaria and dysentery and that he was under the treatment of Dr. Narasimha Rao, Civil Assistant Surgeon, Kanigiri. On receipt of the application of Venkatiah the company directed him to appear before its senior medical officer. That officer reported on 22 March 1957 in these terms:

I have examined this worker and am unable to confirm that he was ill for a period of nearly two months.

In consequence the company declined to accept the explanation of Venkatiah and refused to condone his absence without leave. On 2 May 1957 Venkatiah wrote to the Eegional Director, Employees' State Insurance Corporation, Mylapore, asking him " help me and reinstate me into my service of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills." This letter was forwarded to the company on 17 May 1957 with a request for comments. On 24 May 1957 the company wrote to the Regional Director in the course of which they said: