Chandrasekhara Sastry, J. - (1.) This is an appeal against the Judgment of our learned brother, Gopal Rao Ekbote, J., dismissing the Writ Petition No. 1501 of 1963. There were as many as 41 petitioners in the Writ Petition. They prayed for the issue of a writ in the nature of a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction restraining the respondents from giving effect to the settlement dated 20th December, 1963 entered into between the Praga Tools Corporation, Ltd. and the Praga Tools Employees' Union.
(2.) The petitioners were the employees of the Praga Tools Corporation, Ltd. (hereinafter called the company), which is the 2nd respondent in the writ petition, represented by its Managing Director. The first respondent is the Regional Assistant Commissioner of Labour, Hyderabad, and the third respondent is the Praga Tools Employees' Union, represented by its President, Sri N. Satyanarayana Reddy. The company has two rival Workmen's Unions. The one known as Praga Tools Employees' Union (hereinafter called the Union) is a Union recognised by the company and commands a majority amongst the workmen at the time of the filing of the writ petition. The other, which was constituted on 4th May, 1961 is known as Praga Tools Corporation Mazdoor Sabha (hereinafter called the Sabha). The petitioners were for sometime members of the Union, but subsequently became the members of the Sabha and continued to be so. On account of some disputes between the company and the workmen, the Union on behalf of the workmen, entered into an agreement with the company on 1st July, 1961. Clause 5 of that settlement provided : "The workers hereby agree to observe an industrial truce for a period cf 3 years from the date of this settlement during which period the Union or the workers shall not resort to any strikes, stoppage of work or go-slow practices."
(3.) There was again a supplementary settlement on 10th December, 1962. Among other things, clause (3) of the said settlement provided: "The Management declare that they will not resort to retrenchment or lay-off during the truce period for purposes of solving surplus workers problem. However, this assurance is based on continued co-operation from the workers in retraining of personnel to achieve a balanced work force and their willingness to carry out alternate tasks assigned to them even if it is in a slightly lower cadre without loss of emoluments. ";