Draft statement of the case is provisional; only a genuine question of law arising from the grievance can be referred.

A draft statement of the case prepared by the Tribunal is only provisional until finalisation, so it may be revised by adding or declining questions before any reference is settled. The Tribunal may also reframe a proposed question to reflect the real controversy, but it will not refer a matter that was not actually raised as a grievance in the reference application. On that footing, the text states that no referable question of law arose from the Tribunal's order and the reference application was dismissed.

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Issues: (i) Whether a draft statement of the case prepared by the Tribunal is a final order or only a tentative step before finalisation. (ii) Whether the question sought to be referred constituted a referable question of law arising out of the Tribunal's order.

Issue (i): Draft statements of the case are not final adjudicatory orders. Until finalisation, they remain tentative, and the Tribunal may revise them by adding questions or declining a reference if necessary.

Analysis: The Tribunal followed the principle that the draft statement is only provisional before it is finalised. On that basis, it retained power in the reference proceedings to reconsider the proposed questions and to determine whether any question should actually be referred.

Conclusion: The draft statement was held to be tentative and not final.

Issue (ii): Whether the proposed question was one that could properly be referred as a question of law arising from the Tribunal's order.

Analysis: The Tribunal accepted that it may reframe a question to bring out the real controversy, but it declined to refer a question not actually in dispute in the sense that the applicant had not made that grievance in the reference application. Applying that approach, it held that no referable question of law arose from the order.

Conclusion: The Tribunal held that no referable question of law arose.

Final Conclusion: The reference application was dismissed after the Tribunal concluded that the proposed question did not warrant reference.

Ratio Decidendi: A draft statement of the case is provisional until finalised, and a question will not be referred unless it is a genuine referable question of law arising from the applicant's grievance.

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