Sanjeev Panda (Advocate) 20 March 2010

Section 17-B Industrial Dispute Act

Workman approached the tribunal against the departmental enquiry. The Tribunal framed two issues
1. Whether the departmental enquiry was as per the Principal of Natural Justice and Fairplay
2. Relief

After completion of evidence and finally the Tribunal decided the First Issue in favour of Workman. Before the second issue decided the Company approached the High Court. After a gap of 8 years workman file an application u/S 17-B of ID Act before the High Court.

Now the issues are:

(a) whether is application u/s 17-B is maintainable in two aspects – Delay of 8 years

(b) Whether Application under Section 17-B is maintainable, if award is not passed but one of the party approached higher court under Article 226 of Constitution of India

Reply Follow

4 Replies

Shreyas Zinjarde (Advocate/Consultant) 23 March 2010

Dear Mr. Panda,

Please enlighten as to whether the management has sought permission to prove misconduct if the enquiry is held to be vitiated on any count. The landmark judgment on this issue is of Cooper Engineering. The management has a right to prove the misconduct if either of the two issues i.e. fairness of enquiry and perversity of findings drawn by the enquiry officer.

In so far as Section 17B is concerned, I think the application as well as the petition both are premature. THis is subject to receipt of facts of the case.

awaiting facts in detail: zshreyas@yahoo.com

Sarjooram Sharma (Assistant Labour commissioner) 25 March 2010

Section 17-B is applicable where labour court passed an award in favour of the workmen and one of the directions of the labour court is that the workman is entitled for reinstatement in service.

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