Sarkar, J. - (1.) There are five appellants before us Four of them were employees of a company called the Indian Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. and the fifth an outsider.
(2.) The appellants were convicted by a Magistrate of Asansol in West Bengal of an offence under S. 27 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, hereinafter referred to as the Act, for having instigated and incited others to take part in an illegal strike. Each appellant was sentenced to simple imprisonment for three months. On appeal by the appellants, the learned Addl. Sessions Judge of Asansol confirmed the order of the learned Magistrate. A petition to the High Court at Calcutta against the order of the learned Addl. Sessions Judge by way of revision also failed. The appellants have now appealed to this Court with special leave. The respondent to this appeal is the State of West Bengal and the Company has been allowed to intervene.
(3.) The Company owns a factory at Burnpur near Asansol in which there is a Sheet Mill. The factory was declared by the Govt. to be a public utility service. There was a slow down strike in the Hot Mill section of the Sheet Mill. The Company thereupon issued charge-sheets to some of its workers, including the four appellants in its employment, for taking part in the slow-down strike and instigating others to join it as also for other misconduct and after an enquiry, dismissed these four appellants from service. On such dismissal the slow-down strike gained in strength. Thereupon, on 8-4-1953, the Company issued a notice to the workers of the Hot Mill the relevant portion of which is set out below: "The workers of the Hot Mills (Sheet Mills) are hereby notified that unless they voluntarily record their willingness to operate the plant to its normal capacity they will be considered to be no longer employed by the Company, after which the Company will recruit other labour to man the plant. The workers must record their willingness before Friday, 10th April 2-0 p.m., otherwise action as stated above will be taken.";