The Branch Manager, v. Thiru. K.Muruganantham, Dr2056

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS

DATED : 11.03.2025

CORAM

THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE M.DHANDAPANI And M.P.No.1 of 2015 The Branch Manager Tamilnadu State Transport Corporation Ltd.

Puducherry.

... Petitioner Vs.

1 Thiru. K.Muruganantham 2 Thiru. P.Panchanathan 3 Thiru. V.Manohar 4 Thiru. G.Kaliyamurthy 5 Thiru. A.Abdul Rahman 6 Thiru. R.Sankar 7 Thiru. V.Parthasarathy 8 Thiru. S.Murugan 9 Thiru. R.Durairaj 10 Thiru. K.Kumar 11 Thiru. P.Mohandoss 12 Thiru. M.Asaithambi 13 Thiru. E.Palani 14 Thiru. R.Manickam 15 Thiru. R.Rajendiran 16 Thiru. G.Johnbosco 17 Thiru. M.Nagaiyan 18 Thiru. K.Muthusamy Pillai 19 Thiru. V.Subramaniyan 20 Thiru. P.Balasubramanian 21 Thiru. E.Desingu 22 Thiru. K.Azhagar 23 Thiru. N.Kesavan 24 Thiru. V.Narayanamoorthy 1/10

25 Thiru. K.Vallikannu 26 Thiru. S.Jayachandran 27 Thiru. M.Iyyanar 28 Thiru. T.Davaseelan 29 Thiru. K.Rajendiran 30 Thiru. A.Babu 31 Thiru. G.Sampathkumar 32 Thiru. R.Murugan 33 Thiru. V.Venkatesan 34 Thiru. P.Elumalai 35 Thiru. NR.Venkatesan 36 Thiru. K.Sivamani 37 Thiru. S.Sathiyamurthy 38 Thiru. G.Baskaran 39 Thiru. S.Janarthanan 40 Thiru. C.Santhan 41 Thiru. S.Ramamurty 42 Thiru. S.Lakshmipathi 43 Thiru. P.Balakrishnan 44 Thiru. M.Dhanaraj 45 Thiru. V.Chinnarajulu 46 Thiru. M.Raji 47 Thiru. K.Ganesan 48 Thiru. M.Sekar 49 Thiru. S.Karthikeyan 50 Thiru. B.Balakrishnan 51 Thiru. K.Iyyappan 52 Thiru. E.Gunasekaran 53 Thiru. V.Chandrasekar 54 Thiru. N.Seenuvasan 55 Thiru. M.Jagathrathjagan 56 Thiru. T.Selvam 57 Thiru. R.Ravindar 58 Thiru. A.Kaliyaperumal 59 Thiru. R.Hobi 60 Thiru. R.Kandan 61 Thiru. A.Samsudden 62 Thiru. R.Rajan 63 Thiru. T.Shajakhan 64 Thiru. S.L.Yogaraj 65 Thiru. K.Arulmani 66 Thiru. L.Ezhilmaran 2/10

67 Thiru. S.Balasubramaniyan 68 Thiru. G.Balasubramanian 69 Thiru. V.Muthu 70 Thiru. S.Elango 71 Thiru. P.Thiravidamani 72 Thiru. V.Malmurugan 73 Thiru. G.Krishnasamy 74 Thiru. A.Peter 75 Thiru. S.Syed Amadulla 76 Thiru. K.Elumalai 77 Thiru. P.Chakkaravarthy 78 Thiru. R.Ramachandramurthy 79 Thiru. S.Babu 80 Thiru. P.Sardhar 81 Thiru. V.Subramanian 82 Thiru. C.Rahu 83 Thiru. G.Devaraj 84 Thiru. V.M.Ramesh 85 Thiru. P.Kaliyaperumal 86 Thiru. K.Mathavan 87 Thiru. R.Venkatasubbu 88 Thiru. R.Muthurajan 89 Thiru. S.Babu 90 Thiru. V.Elumalai 91 Thiru. J.Pugazhendi 92 Thiru. S.Nandhakumar 93 Thiru. C.Jayasankar 94 Thiru. P.Raman 95 Thiru. A.Sekar 96 Thiru. A.Sivaprakasam 97 Thiru. R.Ravichandran 98 Thiru. S.Tamilarasan 99 Thiru. B.Venkatapathi 100 Thiru. A.Jayamathi 101 Thiru. S.Velayutham 102 Thiru. S.Viswanathan 103 Thiru. K.Ravichandran 104 Thiru. T.Vaithiyanathan 105 Thiru. R.Kothandaraman 106 Thiru. S.Mohan 107 Thiru. K.Dakshinamoorthy 108 Thiru. V.Rajendran 3/10

109 Thiru. J.Janakiraman 110 Thiru. L.Selvakumar 111 Thiru. R.Mathiazhagan 112 Thiru. R.Selvam 113 Thiru. K.Jayachandran 114 Thiru. R.Murugan 115 Thiru. K.Nagarajan 116 Thiru. T.Seenuvasan 117 Thiru. R.Sampath 118 Thiru. R.Govindaraj 119 Thiru. H.Mohamed Jalal 120 Thiru. P.Elumalai 121 Thiru. P.Kuppusamy 122 Thiru. K.Seenuvasan 123 Thiru. S.Elango 124 Thiru. M.Rasu 125 Thiru. V.Rajendran 126 Thiru. J.Selvaganeshmurthy 127 Thiru. R.Thandavan 128 Thiru. B.Birla 129 Thiru. R.Jothi 130 Thiru. E.Tamilarasu 131 Thiru. N.Vadivel 132 Thiru. P.Rajaravi 133 Thiru. D.Sivakumar 134 Thiru. K.Azhvar 135 Thiru. C.Nedumanji 136 Thiru. P.Sundarbabu 137 Thiru. A.Sivakumar 138 Thiru. R.Elumalai 139 Thiru. S.Govindaraj 140 Thiru. R.Ramakrishnan 141 Thiru. K.Elumalai 142 Thiru. C.Durairaj 143 Thiru. P.Thirumurugan 144 Thiru. N.Mahalingam 145 Thiru. P.Pandiyan 146 Thiru. R.Ramalingam 147 Thiru. N.Balakrishnan 148 Thiru. V.Radhakrishnan 149 Thiru. P.Chakkaravarthy 150 Thiru. N.Kuppusamy 4/10

151 Thiru. S.Iyyappan 152 Thiru. N.Manimaran 153 Thiru. S.Nagarajan 154 Thiru. A.Sathiyamoorthy 155 Thiru. S.Eganathan 156 Thiru. T.Iyyappan 157 Thiru. R.Edmand 158 Thiru. K.Murugan 159 Thiru. K.Chandrasekar 160 Thiru. D.Thiruvengadam 161 Thiru. P.Kothandapani 162 Thiru. E.Pichaiyanantham 163 Thiru. G.Arumugam 164 Thiru. P.Jayavel 165 Thiru. R.Sekar 166 Thiru. R.Mohanraj 167 Thiru. R.Manavalan 168 Thiru. D.Sekar 169 The Presiding Officer, The Labour Court, Puducherry.

... Respondents Prayer:

Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to issue a Writ of Certiorari to call for the order of the 169th Respondent in C.P.No.5 of 2011 dated 12.04.2014 and to quash the same as illegal and as against the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. For Petitioner : Mr.M.Aswin For Respondents : Mr.B.Manoharan for R1, R2, R4 to R6, R8, R10 to R15, R17 to R19, R21, R22, R24 to R26, R29 to R34, R36, R37, R41, R43, R45, R46, R48 to R56, R58 to R60, R62 to R67, R69 to R71, R73, R74, R76 to R79, R81, R82, R84 to R92, R94 to R99, R101 to R104, R106 to R110, R112 to R120, R123, R124, R126, R128 to R130, R133 to R135, R137, R138, R141 to R143, R147, 5/10

R150 to R151, R153 to R156, R158 to R162, R166 and R168 R3, R7, R9, R16, R23, R27, R28, R38 to R40, R42, R44, R47, R57, R68, R72, R75, R80, R83, R93, R100, R105, R111, R121, R122, R125, R127, R131, R132, R136, R139, R140, R144, R145, R148, R149, R152, R157, R163, R164, R165, R167 - No Appearance R146 and R155 - Died (steps due) R20, R35 and R61 - Not Ready Notice

O R D E R

The petitioner has filed this writ petition seeking issuance of Writ of Certiorari to call for the order of the 169th respondent in C.P.No.5 of 2011 dated 12.04.2014 and to quash the same as illegal and as against the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. 2.The case of the petitioner is that the private respondents filed petition under Section 33 (C) (2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1948 in C.P.No.5 of 2011 claiming a sum of Rs.2,000/- each from January 2011 till April 2011 as City Compensatory Allowance and for continuous payment of City Compensatory Allowance before the 169th respondent and the said petition was allowed on 12.04.2014. Challenging the same, the petitioner has filed this writ petition. 6/10

3.The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that claim petition can be filed only on the basis of pre existing rights inbetween the parties. Admittedly, there was settlement under Section 12 (3) of the Industrial Disputes Act between the Tamilnadu State Transport Corporation Limited and union of the Corporation dated 27.08.2010, however, it is not applicable to Puducherry and hence the employees working in the Tamilnadu State Transport Corporation Limited, Puducherry are not entitled to get such benefits. The learned counsel further submitted that in the absence of any pre existing rights, the private respondents filing computation petition is not sustainable, however, the same was not considered by the Labour Court.

4.The learned counsel appearing on behalf of some of the private respondents submitted that admittedly City Compensatory Allowance is granted to the employees working in the Tamilnadu State Transport Corporation Limited, however, it is not granted to the employees working in the Tamilnadu State Transport Corporation Limited, Puducherry, which is not sustainable since both the entities are under the control of the Tamil Nadu Government. The said fact was properly 7/10

appreciated by the Labour Court and the Labour Court passed the impugned order, which warrants no interference. 5.Heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner. Some of the private respondents have died, though the names of some of the private respondents were printed in the cause list, there is no representation. Though the case is of the year 2015, the petitioner has not taken effective steps to serve notice on some of the private respondents. Considering the pendancy of the writ petition, this Court is inclined to proceed with the case and decide the same based on the materials available on record.

6.Admittedly the petition under Section 33 (C) (2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1948 can be filed only on the basis of pre existing rights inbetween the parties. This Court perused the 12 (3) settlement dated 27.08.2010 and the settlement entered between the union and Tamilnadu State Transport Corporation Limited dated 22.01.2011 for the purpose of pay revision and other incidental subjects and it is applicable only to the State of Tamil Nadu and it is not extended to Puducherry and contrary to the 12 (3) settlement, the private respondents filed petition under Section 33 (C) (2) of the 8/10

Industrial Disputes Act, 1948 and the Labour Court allowed the said petition in the absence of pre-existing rights, which is not sustainable one.

7.The writ petition is allowed. The impugned order dated 12.04.2014 is set aside.

No costs.

Consequently, connected miscellaneous petition is closed.

11.03.2025 pri Index: Yes/ No Speaking Order: Yes/ No NCC: Yes/ No To The Presiding Officer, The Labour Court, Puducherry.

9/10

M.DHANDAPANI,J.

pri And M.P.No.1 of 2015 11.03.2025 10/10