Leading Supreme Court Judgment on jurisdiction of civil court in relation to Industrial dispute

To sum up. the principles applicable to the jurisdiction of the Civil Court in relation to an industrial dispute may be stated thus:

(1) If the dispute is not an industrial dispute, nor does it relate to enforcement of any other right under the Act the remedy lies only in the civil Court.

(2) If the dispute is an industrial dispute arising out of a right or liability under the general or common law and not under the Act, the jurisdiction of the civil Court is alternative, leaving it to the election of the suitor concerned to choose his remedy for the relief which is competent to be granted in a particular remedy.

(3) If the industrial dispute relates to the enforcement of a right or an obligation created Under the Act. then the only remedy available to the suitor is to get an adjudication under the Act.

(4) If the right which is sought to be enforced is a right created under the Act such as Chapter VA then the remedy for its enforcement is either Section 33C or the raising of an industrial dispute. as the case may be.

24. We may, however, in relation to principle 2 stated above hasten to add that there will hardly be a dispute which will be an industrial dispute within the meaning of Section 2(k) of the Act and yet will be one arising out of a right or liability under the general or common law only and not under the Act. Such a contingency, for example, may arise in regard to the dismissal of an unsponsored workman which in view of the provision of law contained in Section 2A of the Act will be an industrial dispute even though it may otherwise be an individual dispute. Civil Courts, therefore, will have hardly an occasion to deal with the, type of cases falling under principle 2. Cases of industrial disputes by and large, almost invariably, are bound to be covered by principle 3 stated above.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Civil Appeal Nos. 2317 of 1972 and 922 of 1973

Decided On: 26.08.1975

The Premier Automobiles Ltd. Vs. Kamlekar Shantaram Wadke of Bombay and Ors.

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

A. Alagiriswami, N.L. Untwalia and P.K. Goswami, JJ.

Citation: AIR 1975 SC 2238

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