The functions and duties of the Industrial Tribunal

The functions and duties of the Industrial Tribunal are very much like those of a body discharging judicial junctions, although it is not a Court. The rules framed by the Tribunal require evidence to be taken and witnessess to be examined, cross examined and re-examined. The Act constituting the Tribunal imposes penalties for incorrect statements made before the Tribunal. While the powers of the Industrial Tribunal in some respects are different from these of an ordinary civil Court and it has jurisdiction and powers to give reliefs which a civil Court administering the law of the land (for instance, ordering the reinstatement of a workman) does not passes in the discharge of its duties it is essentially working as a judicial body. The fact that its determination has to be followed by an order of the Government which makes the award binding, or that in cases where Government is a party the Legislature is permitted to rivise the decision, or that the Government is empowered to fix the period of the operation of the award do not, to my mind, alter the nature and character of the functions of the Tribunal. Having considered all the provisions of the Act it seems to me clear that the Tribunal is discharging functions very near those of Court, although it is not a Court in the technical sense of the word.