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TMI Blog1952 (12) TMI 31X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... unicipal Workers' Union, who questioned the propriety of the dismissal the matter was referred by the State of West Bengal on 24th September, 1949, to the Industrial Tribunal for adjudication under the Industrial Disputes Act. The Tribunal made its award on 13th February, 1950,. that the suspension and punishment of the two employees were cases of victimisation, and it directed their reinstatement in their respective offices, The Municipality took the matter to the High Court at Calcutta by means of a petition for a writ of certiorari under articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution. There were prayers in the petition for quashing the proceedings before the Tribunal, for cancellation of the award, and for an order restraining the authorities from giving effect to the award and from taking any steps in pursuance thereof. At the instance of the High Court, a separate application was filed under article 227. Both the petitions were heard by Harries C. J. and Sambhu Nath Baneriee J. The points raised before them on behalf of the petitioners were five in all: (a) that there was no industrial dispute, and therefore there could be no reference under the Industrial Disputes Act to any ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s that it was not an industrial dispute within the meaning of the Act, and hence there was no juris- diction in the Government to refer the dispute to a Tribunal. It is contended on their behalf that the Municipality in discharging its normal duties connected with local self-government is not engaged in any industry as defined in the Act. It is this question that we have to consider, and for this purpose it becomes necessary to examine rather closely some of the provisions in the Act to ascertain their true scope and meaning. Industry and industrial dispute are defined in the Act in section 2, clauses (j) and (k) as follows: (j) ' industry' means any business, trade, undertaking, manufacture or calling of employers and includes any calling, service, employment, handicraft or industrial occupation or avocation of workmen;(k) industrial disputes means any dispute or difference between employers and employers, or between employers and workmen, or between workmen and workmen, which is connected with the employment or non-employment or the terms of employment or with the conditions of labour, of any person. As clause (k) refers to workmen, we must also look at ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... with the discharge of the normal activities of Government or of a local body, it is argued for the appellant that the dispute cannot be regarded as an industrial dispute. The soundness of this contention falls to be examined. In the ordinary or non-technical sense, according to what is understood by the man in the street, industry or business means an undertaking where capital and labour co-operate with each other for the purpose of producing wealth in the shape of goods, machines, tools etc:, and for making profits. The concept of industry in this ordinary sense applies even to agriculture, horticulture, pisciculture and so on and so forth. It is also clear that every aspect of activity in which the relationship of employer and employee exists or arises does not thereby become an industry as commonly understood. We hardly think in terms of an industry, when we have regard, for instance, to the rights and duties of master and servant, or of a Government and its secretariat, or the members of the medical profession working in a hospital. It would be regarded as absurd to think so ; at any rate the layman unacquainted with advancing legal concepts of what is meant by industry wou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hese remarks are necessary for a proper understanding of the meaning of the terms employed by the statute. It is no doubt true that the meaning should be ascertained only from the words employed in the definitions, but the get-up and context are also relevant for ascertaining what exactly was meant to be conveyed by the terminology employed. As observed, by Lord Atkinson in Keates v. Lewis Merthyr Consolidated Collieries ([1911] A.C. 641 at 642.), In the construction of a statute it is, of course, at all times and under all circumstances permissible to have regard to the state of things existing at the time the statute was passed, and to the evils which, as appears from it provisions, it was designed to remedy. If the words are capable of one meaning alone, then it must be adopted, but if they are susceptible of wider import, we have to pay regard to what the statute or the particular piece of legislation had in view. Though the definition may be more or less the same in two different statutes, still the objects to be achieved not only as set out in the preamble but also as gatherable from the antecedent history of the legislation may be widely different. The same words may mean ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eferring to such disputes a wide an import as reasonably possible. Do the definitions of industry , industrial dispute and workman take in the extended significance, or exclude it? Though the word undertaking in the definition of 1 industry is wedged in between business and trade on the one hand and manufacture on the other, and though therefore it might mean only a business or( trade undertaking, still it must be remembered that if that were so, there was no need to use the word separately from business or trade. The wider import is attracted even more clearly when we look at the latter part of the definition which refers to calling, service, employment, or industrial occupation or a vocation of workmen. Undertaking in the first part of the definition and industrial occupation or avocation in the second part obviously mean much more than what is ordinarily understood by trade or business. The definition was apparently intended to include within its scope what might not strictly be called a trade or business venture. Another provision in the Act defining public utility service and contained in sub-clause (n) of section 2 is very relevant and important in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... arning motive as there generally is in a business. But neither the one nor the other seems a sine qua non or necessary element in the modern conception of industry. In specifying the purpose to which the municipal fund is applicable, section 108 of the Bengal Municipal Act (XV of 1932) enumerates under 36 separate heads several things such as the construction and maintenance of streets, lighting, water supply, conservancy, maintenance of dairy farms and milk depots, the taking of markets on lease etc. They may be described as the normal functions or ordinary activities of the Municipality. Some of these functions may appertain to and partake of the nature of an industry, while others may not. For instance, there is a necessary element of distinction between the supply of power and light to the inhabitants of a Munici- pality and the running of charitable hospitals and dispensaries for the aid of the poor. In ordinary parlance, the former might be regarded as an industry but not the latter. The very idea underlying the entrustment of such duties or functions to local bodies is not to take them out of the sphere of industry but to secure the substitution of public authorities in t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... widest application to the appellation 'trade unions . Professions have their trade unions. It is also used in the Trade Boards Act to include industrial undertakings. I see no reason to exclude from the operation of the Industrial Courts Act the activities of local authorities, even without taking into account the fact that these authorities now carry on inmost cases important industrial undertakings. The order expressly states in its definition section that ' trade ' or ' industry ' includes the performance of its functions by a ' public local- authority'. It is true that these words are used in Part III, which deals with 'recog- nized terms and conditions of employment', and in Part IV, which deals with 'departures from trade practices ' in 'any industry or undertaking,'and not in Part I, which deals with 'national arbitration ' and is the part material in this case, but I take them as illustrating what modern conditions involve-the idea that the functions of local authorities may come under the expression trade or industry.' I think the same may be said of the Industrial Courts Act and of Reg. 68-A, in both of whic ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Union. Each side put forward an extreme contention. For the claimant it was urged that industrial meant simply relating to industry in the abstract, whether it be. in the exercise of trade, commerce, science or learned professions. The corporations contended that industrial dispute meant a trade dispute, and that trade dispute meant a dispute in trade carried on by the employer for profit. A formula midway between these two extremes was postulated in these terms by Isaacs and Rich JJ. who were two out of the four who constituted the majority: Industrial disputes occur when, in relation to operations in which capital and labour are contributed in co-operation for the satisfaction of human wants and desires, those engaged in co-operation dispute as to the basis to be observed, by the parties engaged, respecting either a share of the product or any other terms and conditions of their co-operation. After giving copious extracts from the report of the Royal Commission appointed in 1890 in England to deal with labour problems, they summed up their final conclusion in these words at page 664: The question of profit-making may be important from an income tax poin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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