- (1.) This appeal, by special leave, is directed against the order dated March 22, 1967 of the Delhi Administrations Special Industrial Tribunal dismissing application No. 10 of 1967 filed by the appellant under S. 33 (1) (b) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (hereinafter to be referred as the Act).
(2.) The appellant is a public limited company owning textile mills called Delhi Cloth Mills, situated at Bara Hindu Rao Delhi, and Swatantra Bharat Mills, situated at Najafgarh, New Delhi. The workman Ludh Bubh Singh was employed, at the material time, in the Spinning Section'C' of the former mill. A dispute about the payment of bonus for the year 1964-65 arose between the appellant and their workmen some time in the later part of the year 1965. In pursuance of a settlement dated December 13, 1965, arrived at between the management and its workmen, the bonus for the year ending June 30, 1964 was declared. The said settlement also provided that negotiations for settling the rate of bonus for the year ending June 30, 1965 were to be held soon after the accounts of the mill had been audited and passed at Annual General Meeting due to take place on December 14, 1965. The negotiations in that direction were commenced on or about December 25, 1965, but no settlement could be arrived at between the parties and as such the negotiations failed on February 16, 1966.
(3.) In order to pay the bonus within the period prescribed in the Payment of Bonus Act, the appellant declared on February 21, 1966, bonus for the year ending June 30, 1965, at the rate of 6% of the annul wages. The workman being dissatisfied with the quantum of bonus declared by the Company the Union called upon the workmen not to receive the bonus. As a protest, the workmen went on strike on the afternoon of February 23, 1966. According to the management, this strike took a violent turn resulting in the workmen indulging in wanton acts of destruction of the property of the mill from February 23, 1966 onwards. The appellant, in consequence, declared a lock-out.;