- (1.) BY a bipartite settlement dated 24-1-74 under S. 18 (1) of the Industrial Disputes act, 1947 (hereinafter referred to as the act) made by and between the Management of the respondent No. 1 and the All india Insurance Employees' Association, representing Class III and Class IV employees of the said respondent, the respondent no. 1 was to pay annual cash bonus, not being profit sharing bonus, to their Class iii and Class IV employees at the rate of 15% of their annual wages inclusive of all allowance. A copy of the settlement has been annexed to the petition and marked with the letter "a".
(2.) THE respondent No. 1 not having paid the annual cash bonus in terms of the settlement, the Class III and Class IV employees of the respondent-Corporation came before this Hon'ble Court and filed writ petition through some of their representative employees and the All India insurance Employees' Association and obtained a Rule, being Matter No. 371 of 1976. By a judgment delivered on 21-5-76 the Rule was made absolute and the respondent No 1 was directed to pay the bonus, which had till then become due and payable, to the Class III and Class IV employees in terms of the settlement. This judgment has since been reported in [1978-I l. L. J. 406].
(3.) THEREAFTER the respondent No. 1 issued a purported notice of termination of the settlement dated 24-1-74 under the provisions of S. 19 (2) of the Act and also purported to amend the Staff regulations relating to bonus, and the respondent No. 5, viz. , the Union of India passed an order under S. 11 (2) of the Life Insurance corporation Act purporting to alter the conditions of service of the employees of the respondent No. 1 relating to bonus. The actions of the respondents were challanged by the employees concerned and the matter ultimately went up to the supreme Court in Transfer Cases No. 1 of 1979, Chandrasekhar Bose and others v. Union of India and others. The Supreme court, by a judgment delivered on 10-11-80, allowed the Transfer petition and issued a writ of mandamus directing the respondent no. 1 to pay annual cash bonus to their class III and IV employees, in terms of the 1974 settlement relating to annual cash bonus. This judgment has been reported in [1981-I L. L. J. 1] When in spite of the directions or orders of the Supreme Court the respondent No. 1 failed to pay the bonus, a Contempt Application was filed and the Supreme Court on 13-1-81 passed the following order : "learned Attorney - General who appears on behalf of the Life insurance Corporation of India has made a statement before us that the order passed by this Court in its judgement dated November 10, 1980 shall be complied with before april 13, 1981. We may add that this order will naturally be subject to the result of the review petition, stay petition filed along with the review petition is rejected. Review petition be circulated to Court. ";