JITENDRA NATH BANERJEE Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a strange application by an advocate of this Court, who feels himself aggrieved by an order made by an Industrial Tribunal for payment of costs against his client, a trade union.

(2.) The circumstances under which this application has been made are hereinafter set out in brief. The petitioner, Jitendra Nath Banerjee, says that he practises both in this Court and before Industrial Tribunals, in the New Secretariat Buildings, Calcutta. In paragraphs 2 to 6 of the petition, the petitioner gives an account of an unpleasant incident, on March 25, 1965, in which he alleges to have become involved in an unspecified case before the Fourth Industrial Tribunal. According to the petitioner the consequence of the incident was that the Tribunal became ill disposed towards the petitioner. That incident is not the subject of this application and is related only to serve as a background to the main allegation contained in the petition. The petitioner further states that, on May 18, 1965 (wrongly described as April 18, 1965, at places in the petition), the petitioner was to appear before the same Tribunal in an industrial dispute between Messrs. Shalimar Paints Ltd. and their workmen of the head office. On that day, the petitioner alleges, he remained otherwise engaged before this Court and could not appear before the Tribunal in due time. Thereupon, the Tribunal made the following order--

(3.) The petitioner argued three points in support of the application. The first contention was that the orders dated May 18 and 24, 1965, were perverse orders and made with the ulterior object of penalising the petitioner. Such an order, he contended, should not be allowed to stand. His other contention was that the order for payment of costs was unwarranted under Section 11 (7) of the Industrial Disputes Act and was made with arbitrariness and caprice. His last contention was that the order affected him in his profession as an Advocate and that entitled him to move this Court personally in the matter.