- (1.) This appeal, by special leave, directed against the order of the High Court of Bombay (Nagpur Bench) which set aside the orders of the Assistant Commissioner of Labour and the Industrial Court, Nagpur and remanded the case to the Assistant Commissioner.
(2.) The appellant-firm conducts a number of bidi factories at various places in Vidharba including the one at Kamptee. Its head office is also situate there. The factory at Kamptee and the head office have always been treated as separate entities though owned by the same firm. Consequently, the head office was registered under the Central Provinces and Berar Shops and Establishments Act, 1947 and the factory at Kamptee was registered under the Factories Act. The factory has also its own standing orders certified under the Central Provinces and Berar Industrial Disputes Settlement Act, 1947. Respondent 1 was originally employed in the factory at Kamptee. Two or three years thereafter he was directed to work at the head office and worked therein for about six years prior to the impugned order of dismissal passed against him by the munim of the head office. Aggrieved by the order he filed an application under Section 16 of the C. P. and Berar Industrial Disputes Settlement Act alleging that the said order was incompetent and illegal. The appellant-firm contended that at the material time Respondent 1 was employed as a clerk in the head office that the head office was a separate entity, that the dismissal order had not been passed by the appellant-firm as the owner of the said factory, that the firm, as such owner, was wrongly impleaded and that the application was misconceived.
(3.) The Assistant Commissioner dismissed the application holding that Respondent 1 at the material time was not the employee in the factory, but was employed in the firm's head office. He relied on the fact that the head office and the factory had separate rules, that Respondent 1 used to sign his attendance in the register of the head office, that he was being paid his salary by the head office, and lastly, that his name was not on the muster roll of the factory. He also found that whereas the staff of the head office was governed by the C. P. and Berar Shops and Establishments Act, the factory was governed by the C. P. and Berar Industrial Disputes Settlement Act. Against the dismissal of his application Respondent 1 filed a revision application before the Industrial Court, Nagpur. The Industrial Court dismissed the application holding that the only question raised before it was whether Respondent 1 was the employee of the head office and that being purely a question of fact, he could not interfere with the finding of fact arrived at by the Assistant Commissioner. Respondent 1 thereafter filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the said orders. The High Court held that it was possible in law for an employer to have various establishment where different kinds of work would be done, in which case an employee in one establishment would be liable to be transferred to another establishment. But the High Court observed that unless it was established that the employment of Respondent 1 in the factory was legally terminated it could not be assumed merely because he was directed to work in the head office, that his employment was changed and the head office was substituted as his employer in place of the said factory. As the order passed by the Assistant Commissioner was not clear on this question, the High Court remanded the case for disposal according to law.;