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positive objections". This, however, was subject to the reservation that the number of such employees was not to exceed 150 and that their case,-, would be referred by the Central Government for adjudication by a tribunal. This agreement was the result of several meetings between the representatives of the Bank and the Labour Department of the Central Government and it was reached on or about May 9, 1951.

Thereafter the head office of the Bank sent a circular letter to all its branches calling for names of the employees who according to the branch managers could not be considered for reinstatement. The list of such employees received by the head office from the respective managers of its branches was examined by the head office and the Bank then compiled the list of 150 workmen whom it was not prepared to reinstate. This list was in due course communicated by the Bank to the Central Government; and in pursuance of the agreement aforesaid the Central Government referred the dispute in respect of the said 150 workmen for adjudication before the tribunal by its notification issued on July 2, 1951. Before the tribunal the case for the Federation and the Union was that the refusal of the Bank to take back the 150 workmen in question was a part of the concerted and deliberate plan adopted by the management of the Bank for victimising the President, the Vice-President, the General Secretary and Secretaries and Treasurer of the Federation and of the working committees of the different trade unions of workers and the members of the strike committees, and it showed that the sole object of the Bank in refusing to take back those employees was to teach a lesson to the Federation and -the Union and to penalise all active trade union workers who supported the cause of the employees. On the other hand, the Bank contended that the strikes in which the 150 employees had participated were illegal and had been resorted to not with a view to obtain relief for the employees but with a view to paralyse the business of the Bank and to scare away its customers. The Bank further alleged that the said 150 employees were guilty of "

unpardonable acts of violence, intimidation, coercion and victimisation."

The tribunal gave two interim awards by which it directed the Bank to make some payments to the 150 employees by way of allowance pending the final disposal of the dispute. On February 2, 1952, the tribunal pronounced its final award. It held that the strikes were illegal and that the' Bank was entitled to dismiss the employees solely on the ground that the said employees had participated in an illegal strike. On this view the tribunal did not think it necessary to allow evidence to be given on the question as to whether some of the strikers were guilty of specific subversive or violent acts. It also did not allow evidence to be led by workmen in support of their plea that their dismissal was the result of victimisation. It decided the dispute on the sole ground, that the strikes were illegal and participation in illegal strikes justified the dismissal of the employees. Even so the tribunal made an order directing the Bank to pay certain amounts to the said employees on compassionate grounds.

for the proposition that an employer can justify before the tribunal a dismissal only on the ground on which he purported to dismiss him and not a ground different from it ". That is why in the end the appellate tribunal held that the dismissals were wrongful. The appellate tribunal had no doubt that mere participation by a workman in an illegal strike or his absence due to such participation does not entitle an employer to dismiss him and that it is open to a tribunal to order reinstatement in a proper case. Having reached this conclusion the appellate tribunal observed that "though in the case of wrongful dismissals the normal rule is that the employees wrongfully dismissed should be reinstated, it would nevertheless be necessary to consider the question of reinstatement in the case of each individual employee in the light of requirements of social justice and fair play for which the employee claims and industrial peace and discipline which the employer emphasizes." In order to decide the cases of the several employees from this twofold point of view the appellate tribunal thought it was necessary to allow the parties to lead additional evidence on relevant points. The employees wanted to lead evidence in support of their case of victimisation and they were allowed to do so by the appellate tribunal. The Bank wanted to lead evidence on five points. The appellate tribunal held that evidence on items (3) and (5) would be irrelevant and it thought that item (4) was too vague. That is why 'the Bank was allowed to lead evidence only in respect of item (2) and some heads mentioned in item (1). In the result opportunity was given to the parties to lead evidence on the following points: (1) victimisation, (2) past service records of the 150 employees, (3) conduct of those 150 employees or any of them during the strike confined to acts of violence, intimidating loyal workers and acts subversive of the credit of the Bank, (4) employment which any of those 150 persons got after this dismissal, the period during which they were in employment and the wages or emoluments they received. The appellate tribunal then directed the Bank to file a statement within a month giving particulars of the acts confined to the matters on which the Bank was allowed to lead evidence in respect of each one of the 150 employees after supplying a copy of the same, one to the Federation and one to the Union. In the meanwhile the appellate tribunal directed the Bank to make interim payments to the employees as indicated in its order.

required to do is to grant or withhold the permission, that is to say, either- to lift or to maintain the ban. This section does not confer any power on the tribunal 'to adjudicate upon any other dispute or to impose conditions as a prerequisite for granting the permission asked for by the employer. The same view has been ,expressed in Lakshmi Devi Sugar Mills Ltd. v. Pt. Ram Sarup (1).

In cases where an industrial dispute is raised on the ground of dismissal and it is referred to the tribunal for adjudication,-the tribunal naturally wants to know whether the impugned dismissal was preceded by a proper enquiry or not. Where such a proper enquiry has been held in accordance with the provisions of the relevant standing orders and it does not appear that the employer was guilty of victimisation or any unfair labour practice, that tribunal is generally reluctant to interfere with the impugned order. The limits of the tribunal's jurisdiction in dealing with such industrial disputes have been recently considered by this Court in the -Indian Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. v. Their Workmen (2 ) and it has been held that the powers of the tribunal to interfere with cases of dismissal are not unlimited because the tribunal does not act as a court of appeal and substitute its own judgment for that of the management. In this judgment this Court has indicated the classes of cases in which the tribunal would be justified in interfering with the impugned order of dismissal. It would and should interfere when there is want of good faith, when there is victimisation or unfair labour practice, when the management has been guilty of a basic error or violation of the principle of natural justice, or when, on the materials, the finding of the management is completely baseless or perverse. The same view has been again expressed by this Court in O. McKenzie & Co., Ltd., and Its Workmen (3).