- (1.) THIS writ petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India impugns an order of the industrial Court - Appellate Authority - under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') made in Appeal (IESO) No. 1 of 1989 dated 4th August 1989.
(2.) THE petitioner is a company which has Certified Standing Orders of which Standing Orders no. 25 (5-A) makes provision for payment of subsistence allowance to workmen suspended pending inquiry. The said Standing Order requires the subsistence allowance be paid to a suspended workman provided that the rate fixed shall not be less than one-third of the basic wages and dearness allowance drawn by the workman immediately prior to his suspension. By a settlement dated 13th June, 1988, between the petitioner company and the first respondent union, several conditions of service of the workmen employed in the petitioner's establishment were settled. Clause 25 of the said settlement provides that no demand involving financial burden would be raised during the operative period of the said settlement. It is not in dispute that the settlement dated 13th June, 1988 was operative and binding upon the parties at the material time.
(3.) BY a Notification issued in Maharashtra Government Gazette, Part I-L, dated 17th November, 1977, pages 6812-18, the Government of Maharashtra amended the Model Standing Orders by insertion of Model Standing Order 5-A which requires payment of subsistence allowance to a workman placed under suspension. The said Model Standing Order provides for subsistence allowance at graded rates. For the first ninety days, an amount be equivalent to one-half of the total emoluments is to be paid as subsistence allowance. If the inquiry continues beyond the first ninety days, the rate of subsistence allowance to gets increased to three-fourths of the total emoluments and, if the inquiry is not completed within a period of 180 days, 100 per cent of the monthly emoluments is to be paid during the pendency of the inquiry. By an amendment made by Act No. 18 of 1982, the Parliament inserted section 10a in the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 with effect from 17th May, 1982. Under the newly added Section 10a, subsistence allowance is required to be paid to suspended workman at the rate of 50 per cent of the wages for the first ninety days of suspension, which would thereafter be increased to 75 per cent of such wages, if the workman is not responsible for the delay in completing the inquiry.;