Subsisting award and certified standing orders: fresh industrial reference barred without valid termination, but adjudication remains possible

A subsisting award on leave benefits cannot be reopened by a fresh industrial reference unless it is first validly terminated in the manner required by law; the alleged notice here did not clearly terminate the award with effect from a definite date, so the award continued to bind the parties and the reference was incompetent. Certified standing orders, however, do not by themselves exclude industrial adjudication: the Standing Orders Act provides a separate scheme for certification and modification, but a properly raised and referred industrial dispute may still be adjudicated under the Industrial Disputes Act.

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Issues: (i) Whether the award governing leave benefits had been validly terminated under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 so as to permit a fresh reference on the same subject. (ii) Whether matters covered by certified standing orders under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 could nevertheless form the subject of an industrial dispute referred for adjudication under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

Issue (i): Whether the award governing leave benefits had been validly terminated under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 so as to permit a fresh reference on the same subject.

Analysis: A binding award continues to operate until terminated in the manner required by law. The alleged notice of termination had to convey a clear intention to terminate the award with reference to a definite date. The correspondence relied upon by the union did not amount to such a notice, and in any event it was issued before the settlement then in force had itself been terminated. The award therefore remained subsisting and continued to bind the parties.

Conclusion: The award was not validly terminated and the reference on the same subject was incompetent.

Issue (ii): Whether matters covered by certified standing orders under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 could nevertheless form the subject of an industrial dispute referred for adjudication under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

Analysis: The Standing Orders Act provides a special machinery for certification and modification of standing orders and for disputes concerning their application or interpretation. That scheme does not exclude the broader jurisdiction of industrial adjudication under the Industrial Disputes Act where a proper industrial dispute is raised and referred by the appropriate Government. The two enactments operate in different fields, and certified standing orders do not by themselves oust industrial tribunal jurisdiction.

Conclusion: Industrial adjudication is not barred merely because the subject matter is covered by certified standing orders.

Final Conclusion: The prohibition issued because the fresh reference could not be sustained while the earlier award remained in force, although the broader competence of industrial adjudication over matters covered by standing orders was affirmed.

Ratio Decidendi: A subsisting award cannot be reopened by a fresh industrial reference unless it is first terminated in the manner required by the statute, and the existence of certified standing orders does not, by itself, exclude the jurisdiction of an industrial tribunal over a properly referred industrial dispute.

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