PROCEDURE AND POWERS OF AUTHORITIES :
Section 11 provides that
(1) Subject to any rules that may be made in this behalf, an arbitrator, a Board, Court, Labour Court, Tribunal or National Tribunal shall follow such procedure as the arbitrator or other authority concerned may think fit.
(2) A Conciliation Officer or a member of a Board or Court or the Presiding Officer of a Labour Court, Tribunal or National Tribunal may for the purpose of inquiry into any existing or apprehended industrial dispute, after giving reasonable notice, enter the premises occupied by any establishment to which the dispute relates.
(3) Every Board, Court, Labour Court, Tribunal and National Tribunal shall have the same powers as are vested in Civil Court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 when trying a suit, in respect of the following maters, namely:
(a) enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath;
(b) compelling the production of documents and material objects;
(c) issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses;
(d) in respect of such other matters as may be prescribed.
Further, every inquiry or investigation by such an authority shall be deemed to be a judicial proceeding within the meaning of Sections 193 and 228 of the Indian Penal Code.
(4) A Conciliation Officer may enforce the attendance of any person for the purpose of examination of such person or call for and inspect any document which he has ground for considering to be relevant to the industrial dispute or to be necessary for the purpose of verifying the implementation of any award or carrying out any other duty imposed on him under this Act, and for the aforesaid purposes, the Conciliation Officer shall have the same powers as are vested in a Civil Court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, in respect of enforcing the attendance or compelling the production of documents.
(5) A Court, Labour Court, Tribunal or National Tribunal may, if it so thinks fit, appoint one or more persons having special knowledge of the matter under consideration, as assessor or assessors to advise it in the proceeding before it.
(6) All Conciliation Officers, members of a Board or Court and the Presiding Officers of a Labour Court, Tribunal or National Tribunal shall be deemed to be public servants within the meaning of Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code.
(7) Subject to any rules made under this Act, the costs of, and incidental to, any proceeding before a Labour Court, Tribunal or National Tribunal shall be in the discretion of that Labour Court, Tribunal or National Tribunal and the Labour Court Tribunal or National Tribunal, as the case may be, shall have full power to determine by and to whom and to what extent and subject to what conditions, if any, such costs are to be paid, and to give all necessary directions for the purposes aforesaid and such costs may, on application made to the appropriate Government by the person entitled, be recovered by that Government in the same manner as an arrear of land revenue.
(8) Every Labour Court, Tribunal or National Tribunal shall be deemed to be Civil Court for the purposes of Section 345, 316 and 348 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
Thus, we see that Section 11(1) gives wide powers to various authorities. However, power to lay-down its own procedure is subject to rules made by the appropriate Government. The Industrial Disputes (Central) Rules, 1957 has prescribed a detailed procedure which these authorities are required to follow. (See Rules 9 to 30). The authorities are not bound to follow the rules laid down in Civil Procedure Code, 1908 or the Indian Evidence Act. However, being quasi-judicial bodies, they should use their discretion in a judicial manner without caprice and act according to the general principles of law and rules of natural justice.
Powers to give appropriate relief in case of discharge or dismissal
According to Section 11-A, where an industrial dispute relating to the discharge or dismissal of a workman has been referred to a Labour Court, Tribunal or National Tribunal for adjudication and, in the course of the adjudication proceedings, the Labour Court, Tribunal or National Tribunal, as the case may be, is satisfied that the order of discharge or dismissal was not justified, it may, by its award, set aside the order of discharge or dismissal and direct reinstatement of the workman on such terms and conditions, if any, as it thinks fit, or give such other relief to the workman including the award of any lesser punishment in lieu of discharge or dismissal as the circumstances of the case may require.
According to the proviso to Section 11-A, in any proceeding under this Section the Labour Court, Tribunal or National Tribunal, as the case may be, shall rely only on the materials on record and shall not take fresh evidence in relation to the matter.
Before the enactment of Section 11-A, there was no provision circumscribing the perimeter of the jurisdiction of the Tribunal to interfere with the disciplinary action of discharge or dismissal for misconduct taken by an employer against an industrial workman.
The above Section has no relevance to punishments other than dismissal or discharge (Rajasthan SRTC v. Labour Court, (1994)1LLJ 542).