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1. Challenge in the instant intra-court appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent is to the judgment and order dated 26.12.2003 rendered in Special Civil Application No. 17984 of 2003 by the learned Single Judge of this Court by which the prayers to issue a writ of certiorari or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, to quash and set aside the impugned communication dated 4.9.2003 issued by respondent No. 1 - State of Gujarat and to quash the decision of respondent No. 1 not to refer the industrial dispute between the appellants and the respondent No. 3 _ Reliance Industries Limited ('RIL' for short) in Conciliation Case No. 111 of 2001 to the industrial forum and also to issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, commanding the respondent No. 1 to make a reference to the industrial forum of the industrial dispute raised by the appellants against the RIL which is the subject matter of Conciliation Case No. 111 of 2001, have been refused and thereby the petition filed by the appellants has been dismissed with no order as to costs.

2.2. The appellants had, therefore, filed a writ petition being Special Civil Application No. 6631 of 2002 under Article 226 of the Constitution of India in the month of July 2002 and prayed for the following reliefs:

(A) A writ of mandamus or a writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction may kindly be issued
(i) directing the respondent No. 2 _ Assistant Commissioner of Labour to submit its failure report in Conciliation Case No. IDC 111/2001 to the State Government with immediate effect and further directing the said respondent to accept and receive the complaint Under Section 33A of Industrial Disputes Act of the appellants and to refer it for adjudication to the Industrial Tribunal or appropriate Court of law and further to lodge appropriate criminal proceedings Under Section 31 for the breach of Section 33A of the Industrial Disputes Act;

2.3. The case of the appellants in Special Civil Application No. 6631 of 2002 was that though the conciliation proceedings between the Union and RIL had failed and failure report dated 31.7.2001 had been drawn by the Conciliation Officer in Conciliation Case No. 111 of 2001, the said failure report was not submitted to respondent No. 1 _ State of Gujarat. Thus the appellants' dispute which was pending since long, had not been attended by the statutory authority though they were bound to act in accordance with law. Another grievance of the appellants was that though the proceedings were pending before the Conciliation Officer, the said authority had refused to register the complaint of the appellants under Section 33A of the Act which was required to be forwarded to the Industrial Tribunal for adjudication. Thus the State Government had also remained indolent by turning a blind eye to the grievances of the appellants by not calling for the failure report dated 31.7.2001 drawn by the Conciliation Officer in Conciliation Case No. 111 of 2001 between the appellants and RIL.

9. There is no manner of doubt that the question of referring the industrial dispute arises only when there has been existence of industrial dispute. In instant case, there was no existence or apprehension of industrial dispute and hence the Labour Commissioner, Ahmedabad forwarded the decision dated 2.9.2002 by which it closed the Conciliation Case No. 111 of 2001 and intimated to the concerned parties accordingly. While exercising powers given to him vide aforesaid notification, the Labour Commissioner had also kept in mind the aspect of harmony and peace between the employees and management and also borne in mind the interest of majority of the employees of the said Karmachari Sangh. The then General Secretary of Reliance Karmachari Sangh, appellant No. 1, preferred Special Civil Application No. 6631 of 2001 before this Court and by order dated 6.8.2003 this Court directed the State Government to consider and decide the aforesaid failure report dated 31.7.2001 within four weeks in accordance with law. Pursuant to the order dated 6.8.2003, respondent No. 1 examined the entire case papers and thereupon came to the conclusion that the order passed by Labour Commissioner, Ahmedabad was just and proper and accordingly respondent No. 1 passed the order dated 4.9.2003.