“6... We also cannot agree with the Appellate Tribunal that this gratuity under the Award in this case is not a retrenchment benefit. We have already analysed the Award above and shown that it deals with three contingencies, and one of them is payment due on retrenchment. On the terms, therefore, of the Award in this case it must be held that gratuity provided therein on retrenchment is nothing more nor less than retrenchment compensation provided under S. 25F of the Act, and the workmen are only entitled to one or the other, whichever is more advantageous to them in view of S. 25J. In the circumstances we are of the opinion that the Industrial Tribunal was right in holding that the scheme of the Award in this case providing for gratuity on retrenchment was exactly the same as compensation provided under S. 25F, and as the provisions of S.25F are better than the provisions of the Award in respect of retrenchment the workmen would be entitled to compensation provided under S.25F only, and not both under that section and under the Award. The appellant has already paid the compensation provided under S.25F; the workmen therefore are not entitled to anything more under the Award. We therefore allow the appeal, set aside, the decision of the Appellate Tribunal and restore that of the Industrial Tribunal in this matter. As this question has come up to this Court for the first time, we order the parties to bear their own costs.”
