Draft Amendment granted.
1. By way of these petitions, the petitioner has challenged the order dated 16.08.2011 passed by the Conciliation Officer and the action referring the disputes to the Labour Court for adjudication.
2. It is the case of the petitioner that the employees filed complaints on 15.02.2011 under Section 10(1) of the Industrial Disputes Act claiming reinstatement against the respondent contractors and petitioner pursuant to the order dated 22.06.2010 passed by the Labour Commissioner rejecting the demand raised by the Union in IDR Conciliation No. 171 of 2008 and not referring the demand raised by the Union for adjudication. On receipt of the said complaints, the Assistant Labour Commissioner had initiated Conciliation Proceedings wherein the petitioner had filed reply on 11.04.2011 and prayed to reject the complaints. The contractors also filed their replies in the said complaints. Thereafter, the Assistant Labour Commissioner vide order dated 16.09.2011 concluded the conciliation proceedings by preparing a failure report and referred all the disputes to the Labour Court, Vadodara for adjudication which came to be registered as Reference (LCV) No. 254 to 384 of 2011.
3. Heard Mr. K.M Patel, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Mr. Yogen Pandya for the petitioner. Prima facie the contentions raised by the learned counsel for the petitioner in the petitions seem to be concerned with the question of limitation and jurisdiction and therefore in my view admission of these petitions shall not be beneficial for either side. Therefore, it shall be in the interest of justice if the petitioner approaches the concerned labour court for decisions on this issue. Accordingly, if such an issue is raised before the competent court, the competent court shall consider the said issue as one of the issues while deciding the references and passed orders accordingly.
4. It is clarified that this court has not entered into the merits of the matters and therefore the references may be decided by the competent court without being influenced by the order of this court. Petitions stand disposed of accordingly.
(K.S.
JHAVERI, J.) Divya// Top