Maharashtra General Kamgar Union vs Royal Western India Turf Club Ltd. And ... on 3 August, 2005
The petitioner had alleged the relationship of employer and employee while the respondent Nos. 1 and 2 had denied the existence of such relationship. The defence raised by the respondent Nos. 1 and 2 was bona fide and in fact the petitioner himself had indirectly admitted that there was no direct employer -employee relationship between the respondent No. 1 and the workmen but was claiming relationship on the basis of alleged functional integrality of operations. As held by the Supreme Court in the case of Vividh Kamgar Sabha v. Kalyani Steels Ltd. and ors. (supra) and Cipla Ltd. v. Maharashtra General Kamgar Union and ors. (supra) that issue could not be heard and decided by the Industrial Court exercising powers under Section 28 of the ULP Act. That issue had to be decided first by an appropriate forum under Section 10 of the I.D. Act or the BIR Act as the case may be. The Industrial Court was thus right in holding that it had no jurisdiction to entertain and try the complaint so far as respondent Nos. 1 and 2 were concerned.