FILM DISTRIBUTORS EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION Vs. MANAGEMENT OF METRO GOLDWYN MAYER INDIA LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Metro-Goldwyn Mayer India Ltd. , an has its head office at Bombay with a branch at Madras. The business of the Indian concern consists in the import of films produced outside India and distributing them to customers inside the country. The commission charged by the company on the income realised by exhibitors constitutes its principal income. The Madras branch employed 17 persons, mainly as clerical personnel, in the 8 sections of its office. With effect from 20-9-1957 eight of the employees were given notice of retrenchment, the grounds, being the extraordinary state of affairs resulting from a sharp increase in customs duty of films drastic import restrictions, and loss experienced in consequence, Seven of these retrenched persons, with the exception of one Miss jayalakshmi, represented their grievances to the Secretary of the Film Distributors employees' Association, which, in turn, led to an industrial dispute refereed by the government to the Industrial Tribunal, Madras, for adjudication.

(2.) IN an elaborate order, the Tribunal held that the retrenchment of the 7 persons was not justified, and directed that they should be reinstate with a half of their back wages. The company then filed W. P. No. 49 of 1959 for the issue of a writ of certiorari quashing the award of the Tribunal. This petition was allowed by balakrishna Aiyar J. Except in certain respects which we shall presently indicate. The appeal before us is by the concerned employees, against the order of the learned judge.

(3.) A certain area of the dispute is not now before us, since the learned Judge (Balakrishna Aiyar J.) confirmed the order of the Industrial Tribunal in that respect. It was alleged by the workers that, even upon the assumption that the measure of retrenchment was justified, persons had not been retrenched upon the rule of "1st to come, first to go", which principle finds expression in S. 25g of the industrial Disputes Act. The matter was dealt with very elaborately by the industrial Tribunal, which found that the principle had been contravened, and gave directions accordingly. The learned Judge (Balakrishna Aiyar J.) observed that he did not find it necessary to differ from the Tribunal in its view that the order of juniority had been departed from in the cases of the clerks Eswaran, Mani Aiyar, srinivasan and Bart. The learned Judge directed the management to revise the list of those to be retrenched, in the order of juniority indicated by the tribunal. Hence, this may be excluded from the purview of our consideration.