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TMI Blog1963 (3) TMI 70X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y days from the date of its receipt by the government in such manner as the government thinks fit. Before, however, the Government could publish the award under s. 17, the parties to the dispute which had been referred for adjudication came to a settlement and on October 1, 1957, a letter was written to Government signed jointly on behalf of the employer and the employees intimating that the dispute, which had been pending before the tribunal, had been settled and a request was made to Government not to publish the award. The Government, however, expressed its inability to withhold the publication of the award, the view taken by the Government being that s. 17 of the Act was mandatory and the Government was bound to publish the award. Thereupon the appellants filed writ petitions before the High Court under Art. 226 of the Constitution praying that the Government may be directed not to publish the award sent to it by the industrial tribunal. The High Court held that s. 17 was mandatory and it was not open to Government to withhold publication of an award sent to it by an industrial tribunal. Therefore it was not open to the High Court to direct the Government not to publish the awa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... it may not be enforceable. Subsection (2) of s. 17A also gives power to Government to make an order rejecting or modifying the award within ninety days from the date of its publication. It is clear therefore reading s. 17 and s. 17A together that the intention behind S. 17 (1) is that a duty is cast on Government to publish the award within thirty days of its receipt and the provision for its publication is mandatory and not merely directory. This however does not end the matter, particularly after the amendment of the Act by Central Act XXXVI of 1956 by which s. 18 (1) was introduced in the Act. Section 18 (1) provides that a settlement arrived at by agreement between the employer and workmen otherwise than in the course of conciliation proceeding shall be binding on the parties to the agreement. - Settlement is defined in s. 2 (p) as meaning a settlement arrived at in the course or conciliation proceeding and includes a written agreement between the employer and workmen arrived at otherwise than in the course of conciliation proceeding where such agreement has been signed by the parties thereto in such manner as may be prescribed and a copy thereof has been sent to the appr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rties would file the settlement before the tribunal and the tribunal would make the award in accordance with the settlement. In the State of Bihar v. D. N. Ganguly ([1959] S. C.R. 1191), dealing with an argument urged before this Court that where a settlment has been arrived at between the parties, village an industrial dispute is pending before a tribunal, the only remedy for giving effect to such a settlement would be to cancel the reference, this Court observed that though the Act did not contain any provision specifically authorising the industrial tribunal to record a compromise and pass an award in its terms corresponding to the provisions of O. XXIII, r. 3 of the Code of Civil Procedure, it would be very unreasonable to assume that the industrial tribunal would insist upon dealing with the dispute on the merits even after it is informed that the dispute has been amicably settled between the parties, and there can be no doubt that if a dispute before a tribunal is ambicably settled, the tribunal would immediately agree to make an award in terms of the settlement between the parties. In that case this Court dealt with what would happen if a settlement was arrived at while the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d at between the parties to a dispute before the tribunal after the award has been submitted to Government butbefore its publication, there is in fact no dispute left to be resolved by the publication of the award.In such a case, the award sent to Government mayvery well be considered to have become infructuous and so the Government should refrain from publishing Such an award because no dispute ramains to be resolved by it. It is however urged that the view we have taken may create a difficulty inasmuch as it is possible for one party or the other to represent to the Government that the settlement has been arrived at as a result of fraud, misrepresentation or undue influence or that it is not binding as the workmen s representative had bartered away their interests for personal considerations. This difficulty, if it is a difficulty, will always be there even in a case where a settlement has been arrived at ordinarily between the parties and is binding under s. 18 (1), even though no dispute has been referred in that connection to a tribunal. Ordinarily, however, such difficulty should not arise at all, if we read ss. 2 (p), 18 (1) and 19 (1) of the Act together. Section 2 (p) l ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... likely to be anything but extremely rare. We are therefore of opinion that though s. 17 (1) is mandatory and the Government is bound to publish the award received by it from an industrial tribunal, the situation arising in a case like the present is of an exceptional nature and requires reconciliation between s. 18 (1) and s. t8 (3), and in such a situation the only way to reconcile the two provisions is to withhold the publication of the award, as a binding settlement has already come into force in order to avoid possible conflict between a binding settlement under s. 18 (1) and a binding award under s. 18 (3). In such a situation we are of opinion that the Government ought not to publish the award under s. 17 (1) and in cases where government is going to publish it, it can be directed not to publish the award in view of the binding settlement arrived at between the parties under s. 18 (1) with respect to the very matters which were the subject-matter of adjudication under the award. We therefore allow the appeals and direct the Government not to publish the awards sent to it by the industrial tribunal in these cases in view of the binding nature of the settlements arrived at betw ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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