Devendra Pratap Singh, J. - (1.) Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record and with their consent, this petition is being finally disposed off.
(2.) This petition is directed against an order dated 15th of April 2011 by which the Central government has refused to refer the dispute of the petitioner as an industrial dispute under Section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act').
(3.) The Indian Institutes of Technology, Kanpur (hereinafter referred to as the "Institute") is incorporated under the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 and is engaged in providing education in several branches, including Technology, Science and Arts etc. It appears that prior to the year 2000, the employees of the Institute in the Technical cadre and Ministerial cadre, including their respective sub cadres, were in receipt of the same pay scale applicable to the respective cadres of the two branches. However, in 2000, the employees of the Ministerial branch and its sub cadres were extended higher pay scale without any corresponding change in the scale of the Ministerial staff. Failing in their efforts in claiming similar benefits, since there was no Union in the Institute, the employees of the Technical staff elected five of their representatives, including the three petitioners herein, to take legal recourse before the Labour Authorities. They initiated conciliation proceedings in the year 2000 under the U.P. Industrial Disputes Act before the Authority appointed by the State Government. As the conciliation failed, the failure report led the State Government to refer the anomalies in the pay scale of the two cadres as an industrial dispute which was registered as Adjudication Case No. 8 of 2004 before the Industrial Tribunal III, U.P., Kanpur. The matter remained pending before the said Tribunal where an objection was raised on behalf of the Institute that in view of the decision rendered in the case of Indian Institute of Technology vs. Presiding Officer IV, Kanpur, 2008 118 FLR 1021], the appropriate Government in the case of the Institute was the Central Government and as such the reference was incompetent. The Industrial Tribunal vide its award dated 28th of May 2009 upheld the contention and consigned the record. Thereafter they approached the Conciliation Officer appointed by the Central Government under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, but he submitted a failure report dated 30th of July 2010. However, the Central Government vide the impugned order refused to refer the dispute by the following relevant portion " "..........The applicants in the dispute failed to establish any of the fact in the case where they had been suffered monetary loss due to wrong fixation of pay to them and also failed to establish under which provisions of order/rules or regulation they were entitled for fixation of pay as per their demand.";