- (1.) THE reference is at the instance of the learned single Judge in S. B. Civil Writ Petition No. 6345/ 1992 and S. B. Civil Writ Petition No. 3784/1993. In the first writ application filed by the Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation ('rsrtc' for short hereinafter) the award dated December 3, 1991 as passed by the Labour Court, Bhilwara in Labour Case No. 9/1991, formerly numbered as 39/1987 has been impugned by the RSRTC whereby the learned Judge, Labour Court having found the order of termination dated October 8, 1994 to be unsustainable directed reinstatement of the workman Gopal Singh treating his case to be one of continuous employment and observed that the said Gopal Singh would be entitled to 50% of his backwages till the date of the award and would be entitled to full wages thereafter. His two annual grade increments were withheld. The, RSRTC was also declared to be entitled to deduct a sum of Rs. 8000/to which extent it sustained as a loss on account of the accident. The workman Gopal Singh also challenged the said award in S. B. Civil Writ Petition No. 3784/1993 wherein he prayed inter alia for a relief to the effect that he should be exonerated from all the charges and he was liable to be reinstated by the Court treating him to be in continuous service with all consequential benefits. His contention inter alia was that the finding of misconduct recorded against him by the Labour Court was not sustainable in the eye of law.
(2.) IT would be necessary for us to refer to the background of the case leading to the reference before the Labour Court. Gopal Singh was a driver in the service of the RSRTC. He was charge-sheeted on November 22, 1982 by the Divisional Mechanical Engineer, Ajmer for an alleged misconduct committed by him on November 8, 1982 while driving the Bus No. RSB 4509 without keeping a reasonable distance between the vehicle he was driving and a truck which was going ahead of it. It is alleged that Gopal Singh rashly and negligently collided the Bus he was driving with a truck with the result that there was a damage caused to the Bus to the tune of Rs. 8,000/- and as a result of the collision many of the passengers travelling in the bus received minor injuries. The said misconduct allegedly caused loss of reputation to the RSRTC, inasmuch as, the prestige of the RSRTC about its management in running the Buses was lowered down in the estimation of passengers travelling on the Bus as well as before the public at large who saw the accident caused by rash and negligent driving of the Bus by Gopal Singh. There was a domestic enquiry wherein the Enquiry Officer found Gopal Singh guilty. The Disciplinary Authority thereupon passed an order of punishment of removal from service. Aggrieved by the order of removal from service dated October 8, 1984 (Annexure 7 to the writ application) Gopal Singh filed an appeal before the Appellate Authority which was dismissed by the Appellate Authority on February 27, 1985 (vide Annexure 8 to the writ application ). Thereafter an industrial dispute was raised and on reference being made by the State Government under Section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, both the parties filed their statements of claims and reply thereto. The Labour Court vide its order dated March 3, 1989 (Annexure 11 to the writ application) held that the domestic enquiry against Gopal Singh was unfair and was conducted against the principles of natural justice since despite Gopal Singh making a request for supplying of two copies of spot inspection report Annexure P/2 and P/5 which were prepared on the spot after the accident in question, these documents were not made available to him by the RSRTC. After passing of the order dated May 3, 1989 (Annexure-11) by the Labour Court the RSRTC made a request before the Labour Court to prove the charges levelled against Gopal Singh and such a prayer was allowed by the Labour Court. The RSRTC adduced evidence in support of the charges levelled against Gopal Singh. The Labour Court after evaluating the gravity of misconduct held that the punishment of removal from service of Gopal Singh was harsh in relation to the misconduct proved by the RSRTC and in exercise of its discretion under Section 11-A of the Act set aside the punishment of removal from service imposed by the Disciplinary Authority and instead imposed punishment of withholding of two annual grade increments with cumulative effect, awarded Rs. 8,000/- as damages to the RSRTC and reinstated Gopal Singh back in service with continuity in service along with 50% backwages with effect from October 8, 1984 till the date of the passing of the award dated December 3, 1991 (vide Annexure 18 to the writ application ).
(3.) THE learned single Judge took into consideration Division Bench decisions of our Court in the case of Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation v. Habib Khan reported in (1993-II-LLJ-328) (Raj) and Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation v. Judge, Industrial Tribunal, Bikaner reported in (1995-I-LLJ-357) (Raj ). Another single Bench judgment in the case of Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation v. Kailash Chandra Sharma reported in (1995-I-LLJ-268) (Raj) was also taken into consideration.;