Monoj Kumar Mukherjee, J. - (1.) This appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent is directed against the Order, dated December 6, 1988 passed by a Learned Judge of this Court issuing a Rule Nisi and an interim injunction on a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India filed by Guest Keen Williams Junior Management Staff Association ('Association' for short) and its five members. Facts relevant for the purpose of disposal of the appeal are as under.
(2.) Guest Keen Williams Ltd. ('Company' for short) is a Company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1913, with the liability of its members limited by shares, having its Registered Office at 3A Shakespeare Sarani, Calcutta and carries on business at, amongst other places, Andul Road, Howrah where it has one of its factories. The Company is engaged in the business of, amongst others, manufacture of iron and steel materials. The Company is managed and controlled by a Board of Directors, which include two nominee Directors, one nominated by the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India and the other by the Life Insurance Corporation of India. The workforce of the Company in its factory at Howrah includes a category of staff called Junior Management Staff whose duties are primarily supervisory in nature. They have an Association of their own called Guest Keen Williams Junior Management Staff Association.
(3.) On October 28, 1987 the Company declared a lockout of the factory at Howrah on the ground, inter alia, that workmen employed in its various divisions had resorted to illegal strike. Though the Junior Management Staff were kept outside the purview of the lockout, the Company did not pay their salaries from November, 1987 onwards, on the plea that there was acute shortage of funds, though earlier assurances were given that salaries would be paid soon.;