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4. In order to appreciate the contention, it is necessary to refer to the relevant provisions of the Act. Industrial Disputes Act is a special enactment enacted for providing machinery for resolving industrial disputes. Section 10 of the Act confers power on the State to refer an industrial dispute for industrial adjudication to the Labour Court or the Industrial Tribunal, as the case may be. Section 2A of the Act, which was introduced by the amending Act No. 35 of 1965, made an individual dispute relating to dismissal, removal or termination of service in any manner of a workman, an industrial dispute and consequently, such dispute could be raised by the workman. Section 14 of the Act is of material importance to the question arising for consideration. It reads :

Therefore, when Section 15 provides that an award shall be made by the Tribunal when a dispute has been referred to it, it means, it has to decide the reference on merits. There is no power conferred upon the Tribunal to simply dismiss a reference for non-prosecution. In a given case if a workman remains absent, it becomes the duty of the Tribunal to consider the claim statement filed by the workman as well as the written statement filed by the management and any other record which is made available to the Labour Court and it should answer the point of dispute referred to it on merits. In this behalf Section 11A of the Act is of considerable significance. That section confers power on the Labour Court to modify the penalty of dismissal, removal or termination of services to a lessor one, if the Labour Court or the Tribunal is of the view that having regard to the gravity of the charges held to have been proved against the workman, the punishment imposed was excessive. This question, the Tribunal has to determine even in the absence of the workman. Our view receives support from an earlier Division Bench judgment to this Court in Technological Institute of Textiles, Bhiwani v. Labour Court, Rohtak 1989 II CLR 379. In the said case, a Division Bench of this Court held that even if the workman is absent, the Labour Court cannot be absolved of its duty to resolve the dispute referred to it, on merits. The Division Bench further observed that a Labour Court is bound to proceed and decide the matter on merits even if the applicant absents himself. It should also be pointed out that a dispute referred under Section 10 of the Act to the Labour Court cannot be equated with a civil suit filed in a Civil Court which can be dismissed for non- prosecution by the plaintiff. A Tribunal gets the jurisdiction to adjudicate an industrial dispute on a reference made to it under Section 10 of the Act and the duty required to be performed by it is incorporated in Section 15 of the Act whereunder it has to answer a reference on merits.