LABOUR LAW PROJECT

JUDICIAL REVIEW OF AWARD:

AN ANALYSIS

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

DR. VIRENDER NEGI SHRUTI SHARDA
B.A.LL.B. (HONS.)
9TH SEMESTER
SECTION - B
85/18

SESSION: 2022-2023

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The project “Judicial Review of Award: An Analysis” would not have been possible without the
kind support and help of many individuals. I would like to extend my gratitude to all of them.

I am highly indebted to Dr. Virender Negi for his guidance and constant help as well as for
providing necessary information regarding the project and also for his support in completing the
project.

I would also like to express my gratitude to my parents and friends for their kind cooperation and
encouragement which helped me in completion of this project.

A sincere thanks to all of them.

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 INDEX

S.NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.

1. Introduction 4

2. Award under The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 5

3. Judicial Review of Award 7

4. Conclusion 11

5. Bibliography 12

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 INTRODUCTION
The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 is the Act that regulates the labour laws as it concerns all the
workmen or all the people employed on the Indian mainland. It came into force on 1st April,
1947. The capitalists or the employer and the workers always had a difference of opinion and
thus, it leads to lots of conflicts among and within both of these groups. So, these issues were
brought to the attention of the government and so they decided to pass this Act. This Act was
formed with the main objective of bringing peace and harmony to industrial disputes between
parties and solving their issues in a peaceful manner.

Industrial dispute implies any distinction of conclusion, contest, injury between the business and
the representatives, or between the laborers and bosses, or between the labourers or workers
itself which is all concerned with the work or non-business terms or terms of business dependent
on the terms of state of work of any person.

There are various methods of settling industrial dispute. It may be without state intervention by
collective bargaining i.e., without conciliation or with conciliation or by voluntary arbitration.
The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 along with providing machinery for investigation and
settlement of disputes, provides measures for prevention of conflicts. If the industrial disputes
are not settled by collective bargaining or works committees or by bipartite negotiations, the
Industrial Disputes Act provides the following authorities; Conciliation Officer and Board of
Conciliation, Voluntary Arbitration, Adjudication by Labour Court, Industrial Tribunal and
National Tribunal.

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 AWARD UNDER THE INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES ACT, 1947
Arbitration refers to negotiations in which parties are encouraged to negotiate directly with each
other prior to some other legal process. Arbitration systems authorize a third party called
arbitrator to decide how a dispute should be resolved. Arbitration process may be either binding
or non-binding. Binding arbitration produces a third party decision that the disputants must
follow although they disagree with the result. Non-binding arbitration produces a third party
decision that the parties may reject. The decision given by the arbitrator is known as Award
which is final and binding on the parties to the dispute.

Section 2(b) of The Industrial Dispute Act, 1947 defines award as follows –

“Award means an interim or a final determination of any Industrial Dispute

or of any question relating thereto by any Labour Court, Industrial Tribunal or National
Industrial Tribunal and includes an arbitration award made under Section 10A.”

To constitute an award under Section 2(b) of The Industrial Dispute Act, 1947 the following
ingredients are to be satisfied-

a) An award is an interim or final determination of an industrial dispute.

b) It is an interim or final determination of any question relating to such dispute.
c) Such interim or final determination is made by any Labour Court, Industrial Tribunal or
National Industrial Tribunal.
d) Award (judgement) of Arbitrators under Section 10A is an award.

The Supreme Court in Cox & Kings (Agents) Ltd. v. Their Workmen1, laid down a two-fold test
for a decision of the Tribunal to fall within the definition of award. First, it must be an
adjudication of a question or point relating to the industrial dispute, which has been specified in
the order of reference, or is incidental thereto; and secondly, such adjudication must be on
merits.

But the basic postulate common to both the part of definition is the existence of an industrial
dispute, actual or apprehended. The term industrial dispute in The Industrial Dispute Act, 1947
has the following features:

1
1977 AIR 1666

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 1. There should be dispute.
2. It could be between employer-employer, employer-employee or employer-employee.
3. The dispute must be related to work related issue.
4. The dispute must be raised by a group or class of workers.

The determination contemplated by definition is of the industrial dispute or a question relating

thereto on merits. In order to be an award a determination must be an adjudication of a question
or point relating to an industrial dispute which has been specified in the order of reference or is
incidental thereto and such adjudication must be one merits. The word ‘determination’ also
implies that the adjudicator has to adjudicate upon the whole dispute as referred to him. The
adjudicator cannot determine only part of the dispute, by leaving the rest to be determined by the
parties.

Award includes final as well as an interim determination.

Section 16(2) of the Act simply states that the award of a Labour Court, Tribunal or National,
Tribunal shall be in writing and shall be signed by the presiding officer.

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 JUDICIAL REVIEW OF AWARD
Section 17(2) of The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 declares that “subject to the provisions of
Section 17-A, the award published under subsection (1) shall be final and shall not be called in
question by any court in any manner whatsoever.”

This provision, first, seeks to oust the jurisdiction of the Civil Courts against the awards of
adjudicators under the Act. Secondly, it implies that there is no appeal or revision against the
awards. Hence the question arises as to whether the awards of the arbitrators can be challenged
before the judiciary?

AWARD OF LABOUR COURT, INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL AND NATIONAL

TRIBUNAL SUBJECT TO JUDICIAL REVIEW

The High Court exercises the power of writ jurisdiction under Article 226 and power of
superintendence under Article 227 of the Indian Constitution. The High Court exercises the
power of writ jurisdiction and supervision over all the Lower Courts and Tribunals within its
jurisdiction.

It is well settled that the decision of the Labour Court and the Tribunals rendered under the
Industrial Disputes Act would be subject to review by the High Court and under Articles 226/227
of the Indian Constitution.2

The Full Bench of the Supreme Court in Hindustan Lever Ltd v. B.N. Dongre3, observed as
follows:

“Since against the decision of the Industrial Tribunal no remedy was available
under the provisions of The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 the aggrieved party could only invoke
the jurisdiction of the High Court under Articles 226/227 of the Indian Constitution."

The Court held that where both the employer and the Unions representing the workers were
aggrieved by the award, to the extent it went against them, they can prefer writ petition against

2
Hindustan Lever Ltd. v. B.N. Dongre, AIR 1995 SC 817.
3
AIR 1995 SC 817.

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the award of the Industrial Tribunal to the High Court under Article 226 of the Indian
Constitution.4

It is well settled that if the findings recorded by the Labour Court or Tribunals are on account of
a perverse reasoning or perverse approach to the matter, then the High Court is entitled to
interfere with the said finding by exercising the powers under Art. 226 and Art. 227 of the Indian
Constitution.5

In Engineering Mazdoor Sabha v. Hind Cycles6, the Supreme Court held that the award of the
Industrial Tribunal and voluntary arbitrator is subject to writ of certiorari issued by the Court.
The writ of certiorari is issued when the Lower Court or Tribunal acts illegally or in excess of its
jurisdiction. The Supreme Court also held that though arbitrator is not a tribunal under Article
136 of the Constitution, in a proper case, a writ may lie against the award under Article 226 of
the Constitution.

In R v. Disputes Committee of National Joint Council for the Craft of Dental Technicians7, it
was stated that “there is no instance of which I know in the books, where certiorari or
prohibition has gone to any arbitrator, except a statutory arbitrator and a statutory arbitrator is
a person to whom, by a statute, the parties must resort.”

If an arbitrator records findings based on no legal evidence and the findings are either his ipse
dixit or his findings suffer from additional infirmity of non-application of mind, the award will
be quashed.

The Supreme Court, relying on the ratio of Marina Hotel v. Workmen, and Hindustan Times
Ltd v. Workmen8, held that an award passed under The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 cannot be
inconsistent with the law the legislature laid down, and if it did so, it was illegal and it would
quash the arbitrator’s award.

4
Ibid
5
Shaw Wallace & Co. Ltd. v. N.R. Trivedi, 1998 Lab IC 3309 (Guj).
6
AIR 1963 SC 874
7
(1953) 1 QB 704
8
(1961) 2I LLJ 431(SC)

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In Rohtas Industries Ltd v. Rohtas Industries Staff Union9, the SC held that arbitrator under
The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 comes within the rainbow of statutory tribunals amenable to
judicial review.

APPEAL AGAINST THE AWARD OF THE TRIBUNAL TO THE SUPREME COURT

UNDER ARTICLE 136 OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

Article 136(1) of the Indian Constitution provides as follows:

"Notwithstanding anything in this chapter, the Supreme Court may, in its discretion,
grant special leave to appeal from any judgment, decree, determination, sentence or order in any
cause or matter passed or made by any Court or Tribunal in the territory of India."

Under Article 136, the Constitution of India gives power to the Supreme Court to grant special
permission or leave to an aggrieved party to appeal against an order passed in any of the lower
courts or tribunals in India.

Special leave petition means that an individual takes special permission to be heard in appeal
against any high court/tribunal verdict. Thus, it is not an appeal but a petition filed for an appeal.
So, after a special leave petition is filed, the Supreme Court may hear the matter and if it deems
fit, it may grant the ‘leave’ and convert that petition into an ‘appeal’. Special leave petition shall
then become an Appeal and the Court will hear the matter and pass a judgment.

Special leave petition can be presented under following circumstances:

1. It can be filed against any judgment or decree or order of any high court /tribunal in the
territory of India, or
2. It can be filed in case a high court refuses to grant the certificate of fitness for appeal to
Supreme Court of India.

The question that whether the Supreme Court can entertain an application for leave to appeal
against the award of Tribunal under Article 136 of the Indian Constitution was discussed in
Bharat Bank Ltd. v. The Employees of Bharat Bank10. It was held in this case that the Supreme
Court may entertain an application for leave to appeal against the award of Tribunal under

9
(1976) 1 LLJ 274 SC
10
(1950) 2 LLJ 921.

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Article 136 of the Indian Constitution because the Tribunal has all the characteristics of the
Court and perform the function which is judicial in its nature.

But the Supreme Court exercises very carefully its jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Indian
Constitution while entertaining an application to leave to appeal against the award of a Tribunal.
The Supreme Court entertains any such application under Article 136 where the awards made by
the Tribunals are in violation of the principles of natural justice, causing substantial and grave
injustice to the parties to the dispute.

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 CONCLUSION
The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 which was passed by the government of India in 1947 ensures
peace and harmony among all the industrial establishments, and if any conflict arises, the
provisions in The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 helps in solving the issue in a systematic manner
in which all the parties are satisfied and every decision made is fair and just.

There are various methods of settling industrial dispute. It may be without state intervention by
collective bargaining i.e., without conciliation or with conciliation or by voluntary arbitration.
Arbitration refers to negotiations in which parties are encouraged to negotiate directly with each
other prior to some other legal process. Arbitration systems authorize a third party called
arbitrator to decide how a dispute should be resolved.

The method of solving industrial conflicts with the help of arbitration system has proved to be
quite beneficial since the decision of the arbitral tribunal is final and easy to enforce. The parties
agree to carry out the decision of the arbitral tribunal without delay. This helps in maintaining
the relations between the employer and workmen.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
▪ (Prof.) Dr. Meenu Paul, Labour and Industrial Law (Allahabad Law Agency, Faridabad,
10th Edition, 2017).
▪ S.N. Mishra, Labour & Industrial Laws (Central Law Publications, Allahabad, 28 th
Edition, 2016).
▪ https://www.legalserviceindia.com/legal/article-570-awards-and-
settlement.html#:~:text=Section%202(p)%20of%20the%20Industrial%20dispute%20Act
%201947%20defines,made%20under%20Section%2010%2DA.
▪ https://www.adrtimes.com/arbitration-award/
▪ https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/articles/arbitration-as-a-method-of-industrial-dispute-
resolution-5769.asp
▪ https://www.legalserviceindia.com/legal/article-628-judicial-review-of-industrial-awards-
.html
▪ https://legalraj.com/articles-details/judicial-review-of-industrial-award

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