JUSTIFIED AND UNJUSTIFIED STRIKES :
If a strike is in contravention of the above provisions, it is an illegal strike. Since strike is the essence of collective bargaining, if workers resort to strike to press for their legitimate rights, then it is justified. Whether strike is justified or unjustified will depend upon the fairness and reasonableness of the demands of workers.
Thus, if workmen go on strike without contravening statutory requirements, in support of their demands, the strike will be justified. In the beginning strike was justified but later on workmen indulged in violence, it will become unjustified.
In the case of Indian General Navigation and Rly. Co. Ltd. v. Their Workmen, (1960) I L.L.J. 13, the Supreme Court held that the law has made a distinction between a strike which is illegal and one which is not, but it has not made distinction between an illegal strike which may be said to be justifiable and one which is not justifiable. This distinction is not warranted by the Act and is wholly misconceived, specially in the case of employees in a public utility service. Therefore, an illegal strike is always unjustified.
It is well settled that in order to entitle the workmen to wages for the period of strike, strike should be legal as well as justified. A strike is legal if it does not violate any provision of the statute. Again a strike cannot be said to be unjustified unless the reasons for it are entirely perverse or unreasonable. Whether a particular strike is justified or not is a question of fact which has to be judged in the light of the facts and circumstances of each case, it is also well settled that the use of force or violence or acts of sabotage resorted to by the workmen during a strike disentitled them to wages for the strike period (Crompton Greaves Limited v. Workmen, 1978 Lab. I.C. 1379).
Where pending an industrial dispute the workers went on strike the strike thus being illegal, the lock-out that followed becomes legal, a defensive measure (1976-I Labour Law Journal, 484 SC).