A.N. Dikshita, J. - (1.) By means of this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India the petitioner has prayed for issue of a writ in the nature of certiorari for quashing the award dated 5-11-1980 given by the respondent No. 1 in Adjudication Case No. 75 of 1977.
(2.) Material facts giving rise to the controversy is that the petitioner has for the purposes of generation of electricity various projects including Panki Thermal Power Station at Panki, Kanpur. Respondent No. 2 represents a section of the workmen employed at the said power house. The workmen employed in the said power-house get the wages and various allowances admissible to workmen as fixed by the petitioner from time to time. City Compensatory Allowance had been sanctioned by the petitioner to its workmen living in KAVAL towns within the corporation limits having regard to the dearness allowance. Panki Power Station being situate at Kanpur, its workmen were entitled to the benefits of City Compensatory Allowance and it was sanctioned on 4-6-1974 by the petitioner at the rate of 5% of basic pay subject to maximum of Rs. 25/- per month. Vide letter dated 2-11-1977 of the Secretary of the petitioner it was to continue. The petitioner with the passage of time had undertaken various projects at far off places where facilities of schools, medicines, conveyance market etc. were scarcely available and mindful of the hardship to the employees serving at such sites the petitioner vide order dated 10-4-1973 sanctioned Site Compensatory Allowance to such employees who were residing in the houses provided by the petitioner at the project sites. The Site Compensatory Allowance was much higher than the City Compensatory Allowance. Another order dated 12-9-1973 was issued clarifying that City Compensatory Allowance and the Site Compensatory Allowance should not be paid simultaneously to such officers and staff as two allowances were mutually exclusive to each other and only one of them was payable, and this order amounted to withdrawal of the City Compensatory Allowance.
(3.) In view of the order of the petitioner dated 10-4-1973 a dispute arose regarding the entitlement to the employees serving at Panki Power Station in regard to payment of Site Compensatory Allowance as well as City Compensatory Allowance between the employees and the petitioner. The dispute was referred to adjudication under Section 4-K of (J. P. Industrial Disputes Act (Adjudication Case No. 75 of 1977). After necessary evidence the Presiding Officer Industrial Tribunal U.P. Lucknow, respondent No. 1, vide its award dated 29-9-1980 held that the petitioner was not entitled to withhold the benefit of City Compensatory Allowance in respect of those employees who were on deputation from the Electricity Department and from K E.S.A. on the formation of the Board in 1959. Respondent No. 1 thus held that such employees were not affected by the order dated 12-9-1973. Further the respondent No. 1 held that the workmen who were working at the Panki Power Station on 12th September, 1973 were entitled to receive City Compensatory Allowance at the sanctioned rate and the decision of the petitioner depriving them of the City Compensatory Allowance was illegal and unjustified. Hence, this petition.;