Western India Automobile Association v Industrial Tribunal, Bombay

Facts

• An industrial dispute was referred to adjudication before an Industrial Tribunal, and questions arose as to the scope of the tribunal's power to determine terms of employment and settle the dispute
• The employer contended that the tribunal's function was limited to enforcing rights already existing under the contract of employment, similar to a civil court, and it could not create new rights

Issue

1. Whether an industrial tribunal, in adjudicating an industrial dispute, is confined to enforcing existing contractual rights, or whether it has the power to create new rights and obligations between the parties.

Held

• The court held that industrial adjudication is fundamentally different from ordinary civil litigation; an industrial tribunal is not confined to declaring and enforcing rights that already exist under the contract
• The tribunal has the power to create new rights and obligations, effectively rewriting terms of the employment relationship where necessary, in order to achieve a just and fair settlement of the industrial dispute
• This wide power flows from the object of industrial legislation: to secure industrial peace and social justice, which cannot always be achieved by mechanical enforcement of pre-existing legal rights, particularly given the unequal bargaining power between employer and workmen

Ratio Decidendi

Industrial tribunals possess a wide and creative adjudicatory jurisdiction, extending beyond the enforcement of existing contractual rights to the creation of new rights and obligations, in furtherance of industrial peace and social justice, distinguishing industrial adjudication fundamentally from ordinary civil adjudication.