- (1.) INTRODUCTION Whether an agreement despite expiry would prevail over a regulation made under Section 79 (c) of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948 (for short 'the Act') as regard the age of superannuation of an employee of the Respondent-Board is the primal question involved in this appeal which arises out of a judgment and order dated 11-9-2001 passed by the High Court of Judicature of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur in L.P.A. No. 34 of 2001.
(2.) FACTUAL BACKGROUND : The appellant is a registered Union of the employees of the Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board (for short 'the Board'). The erstwhile Electricity Board framed regulations in the year 1952 under Section 79 (c) of the Act known as General Service Conditions of Board Servants. In the year 1957, the respondent-Board came into existence on re-organisation of the State.
(3.) The State of Madhya Pradesh enacted the Madhya Pradesh Industrial Relations Act, 1960 (for short 'the 1960 Act') with a view to regulate the relations of employers and employees in certain matters, to make provisions for settlement of industrial disputes and to provide for matters connected therewith. In the year 1961, the State of Madhya Pradesh also enacted Madhya Pradesh Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1961 (for short 'the 1961 Act') to provide for rules defining with sufficient precision of certain matters relating to the conditions of employment of employees in the State of Madhya Pradesh. The Schedule appended to the 1961 Act provided for the standard standing orders and item No. XV thereof relates to 'age of retirement'.;