B.N. Banerjee, J. - (1.) The three petitioners and respondents Nos. 7 to 14 are Chartered Accountants and carry on business in partnership under the name and style of Price Waterhouse Peat and Co., inter alia, at No. B/4, Gillander House, in the town of Calcutta, Respondents Nos. 3 and 4, N.R. Mookherjee and S. Kanungo and respondent No. 5, Prantosh Bakshi, are employees under the partnership Price Waterhouse Peat and Co.
(2.) There arose a dispute between the partnership and the respondents Nos. 3 to 5 represented by their trade union, firstly, over the offer of payment of bonus at reduced rate (which is referred to in the petition as an offer o ex gratia payment to respondent NOS. 3 and 4) and, secondly, over the discharge of respondent "No. 5 on the ground of absence from office without leave. The dispute was ultimately referred by the respondent State Government to the First Industrial Tribunal for adjudication. The issues referred to the Tribunal were: (1) Whether deduction of bonus granted to Sri N. R. Mookerjee and S. Kanungo is justified? To what relief are they entitled? (2) Is the discharge of Sri Prantosh Bakshi justified? What relief is he entitled to?
(3.) The petitioners took a preliminary objection before the Tribunal to the effect that as persons practising as Chartered Accountants they did not carry on any industry within the meaning of the Industrial Disputes Act and that employees under Chartered Accountants were not workmen within the meaning of the said Act. As such it was contended that the Industrial Disputes Act had no application to the dispute and that the reference was incompetent.;