Industrial tribunal must stay within the reference and pleadings; extra-referral findings and misplaced retrenchment reasoning led to remittal.

Industrial adjudication under the Industrial Disputes Act must remain confined to the dispute referred, the pleadings, and the applicable standing orders. The tribunal and the Labour Appellate Tribunal erred by travelling beyond the real controversy, relying on considerations not raised by the parties, and applying an unduly narrow view of retrenchment and termination requirements. The award and appellate decision were therefore set aside, and the matter was remitted for rehearing and fresh decision on the proper issues.

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Issues: Whether the award of the adjudicator and the decision of the Labour Appellate Tribunal were vitiated because they proceeded beyond the pleadings and the real dispute referred, relied on irrelevant considerations, and ignored the standing orders applicable to termination and retrenchment, thereby requiring the matter to be remitted for fresh decision.

Analysis: Industrial adjudication is wider than the strict law of master and servant, but tribunals acting under the Industrial Disputes Act must still function within the limits of the reference, the pleadings, and the procedure prescribed by the Act and the standing orders. The real controversy was whether the specified retrenchments were justified on the grounds pleaded by the employer, namely shortage of scrap and transfer of the hoop mill. Instead of confining itself to those issues, the adjudication travelled beyond the pleadings, introduced considerations not raised by the parties, and treated retrenchment as impermissible unless it was the last resort or unless lay-off in rotation was adopted. The Labour Appellate Tribunal similarly proceeded on an incorrect and narrow view of the standing orders and the factual basis of the dispute, and upheld relief on grounds not properly in issue.

Conclusion: The award and the appellate decision could not stand, and the matter had to be set aside and remitted to the Labour Appellate Tribunal for rehearing and fresh decision on the proper issues.

Ratio Decidendi: An industrial tribunal must decide only the dispute actually referred and raised in the pleadings, and an award based on irrelevant or extra-referral considerations is liable to be set aside and remitted for fresh adjudication.

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