Respect Judicial Order Passed By Coordinate Bench Of Another High Court: SC Remarks On Observations Of Single Judge Of Uttarakhand HC

An employee who was terminated by the Uttar Pradesh Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited approached the Labour Court of Dehradun raising an industrial dispute. The Labour Court directed his reinstatement with full back wages. The employer challenged the award of the Labour Court by filing a Writ Petition before the Allahabad High Court. The High Court granted a conditional interim order staying the execution of award on condition of deposit of the entire back wages before the Labour Court.

During the pendency of the aforesaid Writ Petition, the State of Uttarakhand came to be created and the jurisdiction of the Labour Court, Dehradun came to be vested in the Uttarakhand High Court. As per Section 35 of the Uttar Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2000, the Writ Petition was required to be transferred to the Uttarakhand High Court by the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, which was not done. Hence, when the Writ Petition was taken for hearing in 2014, a Single Judge of the Allahabad High Court granted the liberty to the employer to withdraw the Writ Petition and approach the appropriate Court, i.e., the Uttarakhand High Court.

When the employer filed a fresh Writ Petition before the Uttarakhand High Court, a Single Judge, by the judgment impugned before the Supreme Court, dismissed the Writ Petition without entering into the merits of the case solely on the ground that in view of Section 35 of the Uttar Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2000, the power to transfer the case lies with the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court and therefore the Single Judge of the Allahabad High Court was not justified in permitting the petitioner to withdraw the Writ Petition with liberty to file a fresh Writ Petition. 

In the process, the Single Judge of the Uttarakhand High Court observed that by permitting the petitioner to withdraw Writ Petition with liberty to file fresh one before the Uttarakhand High Court, the Single Judge of the Allahabad High Court has barged in to override the provisions contained under Section 35 of the Act by adorning himself with the powers of the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, as contemplated under Sub­Section (2) of Section 35 of the Act for the transfer of pending matters before the Allahabad High Court. It was also observed that the liberty granted by Allahabad High Court will not make the Writ Petition tenable before the Uttarakhand High Court, that too when a challenge is made to award before the Uttarakhand High Court after 19 years of its pendency.

The Judgment of the Single Judge of Uttarakhand High Court was challenged before the Supreme Court.

A two-judge Bench of Justice M. R. Shah and Justice Aniruddha Bose allowed the Appeal and directed the Uttarakhand High Court to restore the Writ Petition and dispose of the same within six months. 

The Bench observed that "...learned Single Judge of the High Court of Uttarakhand is not at all justified in making comments upon the judicial order passed by the Coordinate Bench of the Allahabad High Court. The Single Judge of the High Court of Uttarakhand was not acting as an appellate court against the judicial order passed by the High Court of Allahabad..."

The Bench also observed that "Judicial discipline/propriety demand to respect the order passed by the Coordinate Bench and more particularly the judicial order passed by the Coordinate Bench of the High Court, in the present case the Allahabad High Court which as such was not under challenge before it."