Judgment:
Gyan Sudha Mishra, J.
1. The petitioner herein has assailed the order dated June 30, 1998 passed by the Department of Labour, Government of India (as contained in Annexure-3 to this writ petition) by which his application for initiation of reference of dispute under Section 12 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 has been rejected.
2. The facts of the case in so far as it is relevant for deciding the controversy raised herein are that the the petitioner Babu Lal had set up a sweets shop in front of the State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur across the road from where he was supplying drinking water in pitchers after charging some money from the State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur. An idea suddenly appears to have struck him that he could be treated as a workman under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 so as to claim regularisation of his services with the respondent-Bank and hence he filed a suit before the Civil Judge-cum-Judicial Magistrate-Gangapur city for regularisation of his services and also filed an application for injunction restraining the respondent from preventing the petitioner to supply water to the Bank which according to the petitioner would amount to termination of his services as per the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
3. The petitioner's application for injunction was rejected by the Civil Judge-cum-Judicial Magistrate on the ground that the petitioner is not a workman in the eye of law. The petitioner thereafter withdrew the suit from the Court of Civil Judge which did not deter him from his pursuit as he then filed an application for initiation of a reference of dispute under the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947 which was rejected by the Department of Labour, Government of India by order dated June 30, 1998 as contained in Annexure-3 stating therein that, the workman has not put in 240 days of service in 12 consecutive months.
4. The petitioner feeling aggrieved with the aforesaid order of rejection of his reference got an opportunity to avail a technical argument in his favour to the effect that the Department of Labour- Government of India could not have recorded an opinion on merit that the petitioner has not put in 240 days of service so as to disentitle him from being treated as a workman. Prima facie, this argument although is perfectly justified due to which a show cause notice was issued to the respondents, a revealation was made before this Court by the respondent's advocate that the petitioner in fact is running the business of a sweet shop in front of the respondent-Bank and was supplying drinking water from there who filed a suit and also an application for injunction which has been noted hereinbefore, but had failed to disclose this fact either in this writ petition or before the competent authorities while filing an application for initiation of reference.
5. The counsel for the petitioner Mr. Rajesh Moondia however confronted the situation by urging that the petitioner was not duty bound to disclose this fact before the competent authorities who had to pass an appropriate order for initiating a reference on the dispute existing and even though he had filed a suit for getting him declared as a workman which he had withdrawn, the matter was fit to be adjudicated on merit and the reference could not have been refused merely because an application for injunction was rejected.
6. But the argument advanced by the petitioner's advocate is clearly beset with legal flaws as he seems to have missed that in the writ petition a categorical declaration is legally required to be made to the effect that the petitioner has no other alternative remedy and that he has exhausted all other remedies available to him. In view of this legal and procedural requirement, the petitioner was duty bound to disclose it in his writ petition that he had already moved the Court of the Civil Judge-cum- Judicial Magistrate for getting him declared as a workman and even though the suit was not finally decided recording a finding that he was not workman, the application seeking an order of injunction had been rejected by the Civil Judge-cum-Judicial Magistrate who had an occasion to prima facie adjudicate on the question whether the petitioner was a workman in the eye of law which was decided against the petitioner, since the petitioner was merely doing business in front of the State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur by supplying water and charging money. This finding even though was given out in the order rejecting the application for injunction, it was never challenged in appeal before any forum and that finding having gone against him, he was duty bound to disclose this writ petition and in my considered opinion he was also bound to disclose it before the competent authorities who had to initiate reference. The argument of the learned counsel for the petitioner that he was not duty bound to disclose it before the competent authorities regarding the fact that he had tried his luck before any other forum, cannot hold good in the circumstances of this nature as this legal position although may be correct in a circumstance for a workman who had not moved any forum for redressal of his grievance, it cannot universally be applied under all circumstances, specially when a workman has already approached the Civil Court as an alternative remedy for redressal of his grievance. This suppression of fact at the instance of the petitioner in this writ petition as also before the competent authorities of the Labour Department, Government of India clearly disentitles him from urging that the Labour Department could not have expressed any opinion on the merit of the claim. This argument as already stated, would be available only to a workman who has not approached any other forum for redressal of his grievance. Hence the argument raised on behalf of the petitioner cannot be sustained in the facts and circumstances of the instant case against the Department of Labour and more so when the petitioner had already availed an alternative remedy before the Civil Court which is a reason weighty enough to disentitle him to seek any relief in this writ petition, apart from the fact that he is not a workman in the eye of law which had been prima facie decided by the Court of Civil Judge-cum-Judicial Magistrate of Gangapur city.
7. The writ petition under the circumstances is absolutely devoid of merit and hence it stands dismissed.