- (1.) In these appeals, the seminal question that emerges for consideration is whether the High Court of Allahabad in Miscellaneous Writ Petition No.21164 of 1998 has justifiably overturned the award passed by the Central Government Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court, Kanpur (for short, 'the Tribunal') on the singular foundation that the aggrieved persons, at whose instance a reference was made under Sections 10(1) and 2(a) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (for brevity, 'the Act'), was not adjudicable by the tribunal, for the aggrieved persons were working as Development Officers in the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and hence, they could be treated as workmen under the schematic context of the Act and, therefore, the Labour Court had no jurisdiction to deal with the lis in question.
(2.) Regard being had to the aforesaid issue, we are not required to state the facts in detail. Suffice it to state that the Central Government had made a reference, vide notification MO E-17012/35/89-iB(B) dated 4.12.1989, of the following dispute for adjudication : "Whether the action of the management of LIC of India in imposing penalty of reduction of salary of Shri R.C. Dubey, C. Tripathi, Nankoo Singh, D.K. Shukla and N.K. Misra, Development Offices by three steps in their time scale of pay is justified If not, to what relief the workman concerned are entitled -
(3.) Be it noted, such a reference was made as the concerned development officers were visited with the punishment of reduction of salary by three steps after conducting an enquiry in a disciplinary proceeding in respect of certain charges levelled against them and finding them guilty of the charges. It is apt to note here that the principal charge that was levelled against the officers was that they had claimed inflated incentive bonus to which they were not entitled to.;