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TMI Blog1985 (5) TMI 248X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ated with full back wages and continued in service with effect from October 10, 1972. 2. Numerous preliminary objections were raised by the employer, amongst them being one that the appellant is not a workman within the meaning of the expression in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (Act for Short). 3. Evidence was led by both the parties and numerous documents were placed on record. On appreciation of evidence the Labour Court held that even though the appellant was doing some clerical work, he was also doing supervisory and administrative work and other work of checking bank reconciliation etc. which was not clerical work and therefore he was not a workman within the meaning of the expression in the Act but in fact he was an officer of the Covenanted Contractual Staff Cadre. Accordingly, an award was made rejecting the reference. 4. The writ petition filed by the appellant in the Bombay High Court was dismissed in limine. Hence this appeal by special leave. 5. Broadly accepting the appreciation of evidence and the findings of facts recorded by the trial court, could it be said that the conclusion reached by drawing impermissible inference from the evidence would justif ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ao (appellant) was doing all the work narrated by Shri Sitaram. Most of this work, in my opinion, was just clerical work . The Court also refereed to some of the admissions made by Shri Sitaram in his cross-examination which led the Court to observe that all the duties performed by the appellant were clerical duties and that the appellant was performing these duties as a clerk. The Court then concluded that in general, the duties of the appellant mentioned by Shri Sitaram were more or less clerical and at best it can be said that they were performed by an efficient and experienced clerk. 8. The Labour Court then look note of the fact that in 1966 appellant was promoted as Assistant and that he was designated as Group Leader. Ex. 16/6 was referred to as specifying the duties of the Group Leader of Group II. The Court concluded that the aforementioned document would show that the appellant was a Group Leader and that he accepted that position by putting his initials on the document. The inference drawn by the Court from this document is that the work of Group Leader is undoubtedly mainly supervisory though he is also required to work himself. However in the view of the Labour Cour ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... roach betrays lack of understanding of what constitutes bank reconciliation statements. When a party opens an account, it goes on making credits and withdrawals. The bank maintain a recurring account. The party opening the account for its continuous watch may open a corresponding account on its own books. In order to see that there are no errors in credits and withdrawals and the balance is drawn at regular intervals, reconciliation of figures in the accounts of both the parties is undertaken. This is one of the most mechanical types of clerical work. However, the Labour Court fell into an error when after taking note of the fact that the appellant was asked to prepare bank's reconciliation statements, looked into the decision in Kirloskar Brothers Ltd. v. Labour court (1976 Lab IC 918), wherein preparation of budgetary statement applied into the case of a man who had nothing to do with preparation of budgetary statements but merely to do the wholly mechanical work of bank's reconciliation statements and recorded a wholly perverse conclusions. This is a serious error apparent on the face of the record committed by the Labour Court which has influenced our thinking. 10. T ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... flavour such as covenanted civil service. This small company seems to have adopted a nomenclature which was prestigious under the British Rule. Clerks and Assistants could hardly be elevated to the rank of officer by being miscalled covenanted contractual staff cadre. These high-sounding nomenclatures are adopted not only to inflate the ego of the employer but primarily for avoiding the application of the Act. They apart from being misleading are not in tune with free India's Constitution culture. We remain unimpressed by these high-sounding labels. 13. Having examined in meticulous details the award of the Labour Court we are satisfied that the Tribunal after rightly holding that primarily the duties of the appellant are of a clerical nature misled itself into an erroneous conclusion by drawing an impermissible inference and recorded a finding which we regret to style as perverse. In fact, the Labour Court ignored the correct perspective in evaluating the evidence viz., that when primary or basic duties of a person are shown to be clerical but some stray assignments are made to create confusion, the gloss has to be removed to pursue the reality and that is all what we have ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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