Industrial tribunal jurisdiction limits: interim relief cannot exceed the reference, and non-statutory settlements cannot govern adjudication.

An industrial tribunal cannot grant interim relief on matters outside the scope of a Government reference under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Here, the reference was limited to identifying retrenched workers and determining gratuity, termination benefits, and arrear wages, but the tribunal wrongly treated retrenchment itself as still open and ordered wages for all workers until retrenchment was effected. The tribunal also misread a 9-6-1951 settlement as a statutory conciliation settlement binding under the Act, although the record did not show a valid conciliation proceeding. The interim award therefore enlarged the reference, rested on a jurisdictional error, and was quashed.

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Issues: Whether the interim award of the industrial tribunal was liable to be quashed for travelling beyond the scope of the reference and for resting on a misapprehension that the agreement of 9-6-1951 formed part of the matters referred for adjudication.

Analysis: The reference under Section 10(1)(c) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 was confined to identifying the workers to be retrenched, deciding gratuity and other benefits on termination, and determining arrear wages payable to retrenched, discharged or dismissed workers. The tribunal, however, proceeded on the footing that the necessity for retrenchment itself was still open and directed payment of wages to all twenty-eight workers till retrenchment, if found necessary, was effected. That approach enlarged the reference and introduced a matter not within the tribunal's jurisdiction. The tribunal also treated the settlement of 9-6-1951 as if it were a conciliation settlement binding under the Act and as though its third term corresponded to issue No. 3 in the reference. The record showed that the conference was not established as a statutory conciliation proceeding and the agreement could not be converted into a referred industrial dispute. The tribunal's error as to the identity of the issues and the basis of its award was apparent on the face of the record.

Conclusion: The interim award was made without jurisdiction and was vitiated by an error apparent on the face of the record; it was liable to be quashed in favour of the petitioner.

Ratio Decidendi: An industrial tribunal cannot grant interim relief on a matter outside the scope of the Government reference, and a settlement not shown to be reached in statutory conciliation cannot be treated as the basis for adjudication under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

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