Retrospective relief before an Industrial Tribunal may run from an earlier date where the claim was already raised and referred.

An Industrial Tribunal may grant relief from a date earlier than the date on which a dispute is formally raised if the claim had already been made before management and was expressly included in the reference for adjudication. The Industrial Disputes Act contains no express bar limiting relief only to the date of the fresh demand. Acting as a substitute forum for civil adjudication, the Tribunal may, on the facts, award retrospective effect where the dispute was already in existence and the earlier claim was part of the referred issue. Prior decisions were distinguished on factual grounds, and the contrary view was found erroneous.

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Issues: Whether an Industrial Tribunal has power to grant relief from a date anterior to the date on which the dispute was raised, where the demand for such earlier date was itself made before the Management and was expressly referred for adjudication.

Analysis: The Industrial Disputes Act does not impose any express restriction that relief can operate only from the date of raising of the dispute. The Tribunal functions as a substitute forum for civil adjudication and, subject to the facts of the case, may grant relief from an earlier date if the claim was in existence and the reference itself covered that demand. Prior decisions were distinguished because they dealt with fairness in the facts of those cases or with disputes not actually raised before the Management. On the record, the workmen had raised the demand years earlier, conciliation had failed, and the later demand merely reiterated the same claim with retrospective effect from an anterior date.

Conclusion: The Tribunal did have power to award the benefit from a date earlier than the date of the fresh demand, and the contrary view of the High Court was erroneous.

Ratio Decidendi: An Industrial Tribunal may, in an appropriate case and where the claim is part of the dispute referred to it, grant relief with effect from a date earlier than the date on which the dispute was formally raised.

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