- (1.) This appeal has been preferred by the Bihar State Road Transport corporation against the judgment of the High court of Patna dated 8/2/1991 dismissing the writ petition.
(2.) The incident with regard to which the respondent, who was working as a conductor in the appellant-corporation, was charge-sheeted is dated 29/4/1973. It is stated that the bus of which the respondent was a conductor was found carrying 10 unbooked passengers. A charge-sheet was issued on 24/5/1973 and an order of discharge was passed on I-8-1973. The appeal preferred by the respondent to the appellate authority was rejected on 14/11/1973. It appears that initially, the respondent filed-a writ petition before the High court and the same was dismissed as withdrawn, but subsequently a dispute was raised under Section 10 of the Industrial disputes Act, 1947 which was referred to the Labour court at Muzaffarpur. The Labour court passed an order on 30/9/1988 setting aside the order of discharge and directing reinstatement of the respondent with full back wages holding that the Standing Orders did not permit discharge and that the divisional Manager was not competent to dismiss the workman. Against theaward passed by the Labour court, the appellant filed a writ petition in the high court which was dismissed on the ground that there is "no merit" in the application. It is against that order that this appeal has been preferred by the Bihar State Road Transport Corporation.
(3.) We have heard learned counsel for the appellant and the respondent. We find that the charge against the respondent was that when the vehicle was inspected on 29/4/1973 at 15.30 hours, it was found that 10 passengers out of 43 passengers were without ticket. It is disclosed from the order of the labour court that the Standing Orders of the appellant-corporation which are of the year 1969 state that if the non-issuance of tickets relates to a number of passengers less than 25% of the passengers at the time of inspection, only fine is to be levied against the conductor. It was on this basis that the Labour court found that the dismissal was wholly unjustified and directed reinstatement with full back wages.;