Markandey Katju JUDGMENT
Markandey Katju, J.
1. Leave granted.
2. This appeal has been filed against the impugned judgment dated 16.8.2007 passed by the High Court of Bombay in Writ Petition No. 1240 of 2007.
3. Heard learned Counsel for the parties and perused the record.
4. Respondent No. 3, Century Industries Textiles Limited, is a company registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1956. It had about 7500 employees in its textile mill at Mumbai which suffered heavy loss due to high increase in the cost of production and competition both in the domestic as well as international market. With the object to reduce its operational cost, agreements dated 6.7.2004 and 5.9.2005 were entered into by the company with its recognized union for reducing the workforce through an offer of Voluntary Retirement Scheme (hereinafter in short 'VRS'). However, there was hardly any success in this exercise, and only about 800 employees opted for the VRS which left with 6700 employees still on its roll. Finally, a highly upgraded VRS was offered to the employees unilaterally by the respondent-company on 13.11.2006 which offer was valid till 12.12.2006. There was an overwhelming response to the said VRS and more than 6300 employees opted for the new VRS, and were accordingly relieved from service on payment of VRS benefits and all other legal dues. Only about 275 employees did not accept the abovementioned VRS and 230 of these were the petitioners before the High Court.
5. The respondent-company further alleged that its manufacturing activities in its textile mill came to an end on 13.12.2006 since it was left with only 275 workers. All supervisors and departmental heads had left after taking the VRS. In these circumstances, the respondent-company was constrained to file an application seeking permission for closure under Section 25O of the Industrial Disputes Act (hereinafter in short 'the Act') vide application dated 13.2.2007.
6. Before the aforesaid application under Section 25O could be decided, the respondent-company received a letter dated 5.4.2007 from the Deputy Commissioner of Labour, Mumbai, a copy of which is Annexure P-1 to this appeal. This letter states that as per the directions of the Hon'ble Minister for Labour, Maharashtra Government, a meeting has been convened for discussing the matter in dispute at 11.00 A.M. on 9.4.2007 in the Chambers of the Hon'ble Minister in Vidhan Bhavan.
7. In response, the respondent-company wrote a letter to the Hon'ble Minister for Labour dated 11.4.2007 stating that it was willing to discuss the matter in dispute and would attend the meeting. However, in the same letter dated 11.4.2007 the respondent-company also mentioned that under Section 25O(3) of the Industrial Disputes Act, an application under Section 25O(1) has to be decided within 60 days, otherwise it would be deemed to have been allowed. Since the application was made on 13.2.2007, the 60 days' limitation was shortly about to expire and then the application would be deemed to have been allowed. However, in order to create a conducive atmosphere for discussing the problems of the remaining em........