Satish Chandra, J. - (1.) THESE two writ petitions are under Article 220 of the Constitution The facts of both are common and they raise identical questions Same persons have filed both these petitions. The first respondent in both of them is the State of Uttar Pradesh In Writ Petition No. 2909 of 1962 Shankar Sugar Mills Ltd., Deoria. is the second respondent while in Writ Petition No. 2910 of 1962 the Punjab Sugar Mills Co Ltd.. Gorakhpur is the second respondent. These petitions pray that the notification dated 1-5-1962 of the State Government be quashed and that the State Government be directed to refer the industrial dispute for adjudication.
(2.) THE impugned notification dated 1-5-62 purports to have been passed by the State Government in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 3 of the U. P. Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (U. P. Act No. XXVIII of 1947) it directs 69 named vacuum pan sugar factories to pay to their employees amounts, by way of bonus for the crushing season 1960-61, shown against their names, within one month of the publication of the order. The Punjab Sugar Mills Co., Ltd., Gorakhpur is mentioned at serial No. 63 of the order and the amount of bonus to be paid by it is shown to be nil. The Shankar Sugar Mills Ltd., Deoria is at serial No. 64 and it has also to pay nil as bonus Several other sugar mills have also been directed to pay nil as bonus whereas a large number of others have been directed to pay various amounts mentioned against their names as bonus For the petitioners the first point urge-ed was that Section 3 (b) of the U. P. Industrial Disputes Act which is the source of power for making the impugned notification is void as it infringes Article 14 of the Constitution. This point has been negatived by me in Writ Petn. No. 2357 of 1959, Mahalakshmi Sugar Mills Co. Ltd., New Delhi v. State of Uttar Pradesh. Dt 13-7-1965 (All).
(3.) THE learned counsel next urged that an industrial dispute with respect to the payment of bonus being in existence or at least apprehended, the State Government ought to have referred it for adjudication under Section 4-K of the U. P. Industrial Disputes Act, and since that has not been done a mandamus should go compelling it to make the reference Under the impugned notification the question of bonus for the whole sugar Industry of the State of Uttar Pradesh was settled. There are 69 sugar factories in the State which are vitally affected by the impugned notification. If the petitioners wanted seriously to raise this question, they should have impleaded those sugar factories as parties in these petitions. In their absence the question whether the State Government was justified in not referring this dispute to the Industrial Tribunal for adjudication cannot effectively be decided. The prayer for compelling the State Government to refer this dispute for adjudication cannot also be granted in the absence of all the interested sugar factories;