A.N. Varma, J. - (1.) Having heard the learned counsels for the parties and with their consent, this petition is being disposed of at the stage of admission of the petition.
(2.) The petitioner is the management being the proprietors of the concern in regard to which a dispute has been referred by the State Government under S. 4K of the Uttar Pradesh Industrial Disputes Act. After the parties filed their written statements, a preliminary issue was framed which reads as follows : "Whether or not the Allahabad Samachar Patra Karmachari Union, 16, Motilal Nehru Road, is competent, to raise the present dispute." On this preliminary issue the parties led evidence and thereafter dates were fixed for arguments and finally on 22 May 1986, orders were reserved on this preliminary issue. On 12 June 1986, the Industrial Tribunal delivered its order by which petitioners are aggrieved. The Industrial Tribunal has stated in the order that this issue shall be decided while giving the main award.
(3.) The petitioner contends that the impugned order is on the face of the record wholly unsustainable in law. It is urged that the Industrial Tribunal has passed the impugned order on the erroneous assumption that the workmen had not been afforded opportunity to lead evidence on the point of espousal. Learned counsel submitted that the parties had clearly understood that the aforesaid preliminary issue was on the question whether the Allahabad Samachar Patra Karmachari Union at the instance of which the present dispute was referred for adjudication to the Industrial Tribunal was competent to espouse the cause of the workmen of the concern. Learned counsel further submitted that the parties had been specifically invited by the Industrial Tribunal to lead evidence on the issue of deposal, i.e., whether the aforesaid union was competent to espouse the cause of the concern in question. That being so, it was urged, the Industrial Tribunal fell into a manifest error of law and jurisdiction in postponing the decision of the aforesaid issue until the final disposal of the adjudication case, i.e., till the award was rendered by the Industrial Tribunal.;