Gajendragadkar, C. J. - (1.) The short question of law which arises in this appeal relates to the scope and effect of the provisions contained in S. 33(2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (No. 14 of 1947) (hereinafter called 'the Act'). The appellant, the Tata Iron and Steel Co. Ltd., Jamadoba, applied before the chairman, Central Government Industrial Tribunal, Dhanbad (hereafter called "the Tribunal"), under S. 33(2) (b) of the Act for approval of the order passed by it discharging the respondent, its employee S. N. Modak, from its services. In its application, the appellant alleged that the respondent had been appointed as a Grade II Clerk in the Chief Mining Engineer's Office at Jamandoba. One of the duties assigned to the respondent was to check arithmetical calculations according to sanctioned rate of the bills coming from the Heads of Department. He was required to bring to the notice of the Deputy Chief Mining Engineer cases of discrepancies or irregularities, and also cases where additions or alterations in the bills had been made, but not initialled. On re-checking of the bills which had been passed by the respondent, it was discovered that several additions and alterations made in the bills were not noticed by him and were not reported. This failure constituted misconduct under the Standing orders of the appellant. For this misconduct, the respondent was charge-sheeted (No. 51 dated 1/5-10-1960); that led to a departmental enquiry, and as a result of the report made by the Enquiry Officer, the appellant passed an order on December 17, 1960, terminating the services of the respondent as from December 24, 1960. The present application was drafted on the 17th December and it reached the Tribunal on the 23rd December, 1960. It appears that this application was made by the appellant under S. 33(2) (b), because four industrial disputes were pending between the appellant and its employees at that time in Reference Nos. 27, 34, 40 and 49 of 1960.
(2.) After this application was filed, the respondent challenged the propriety of the order passed by the appellant for which approval was sought by it, and several contentions were raised by him in support of his case that the enquiry held against him was invalid and improper and the order of dismissal passed against him was the result of mala fide. Evidence was led by the parties in support of their respective pleas.
(3.) When the matter came to be argued before the Tribunal, it was urged by the appellant that the application made by it no longer survived, because all the industrial disputes which were pending between the appellant and its employees and as a result of the pendency of which it had made the application under S. 33(2) (b) of the Act, had been decided by the Tribunal; Awards had been made in all the said References and they had been published in the Gazette. It does appear that the four Reference which we have already mentioned, ended in Awards made on 31st October, 1960, 8th November 1960, 14th April 1961, and 22nd September 1961 respectively. The award on the present application was made on 29th September 1962, and it is common ground that at the time when the appellant urged its contention that the application made by it did not survive any longer, all the four References had, in fact, been disposed of. The plea thus raised by the appellant naturally raised the question as to what would be the effect of the awards pronounced by the Tribunal on industrial disputes pending before it at the time when the appellant moved the Tribunal under S. 33(2) (b) If, as a result of the pendency of an industrial dispute between an employer and his employees, the employer is required to apply for approval of the dismissal of his employee under S. 33(2) (b), does such an application survive if the main industrial dispute is meanwhile finally decided and an award pronounced on it That is the question which this appeal raises for our decision, and the answer to this question would depend upon a fair determination of the true scope and effect of the provisions of S. 33(2) (b) of the Act.;