While appreciating the graphic picture of ground reality depicted by Dayanand, as a retired Conciliation Officer, I would like to state something more in this regard. Generally, conciliation proceedings by the conciliation officers are conducted in an air of informal atmosphere.Thus it would be a catharsis of untold emotions and therefore at times it could be a scene of commotion.Particularly in a strike or lock-out situation it is quite natural on the part of anxious workmen to assemble in the Labour Office in large numbers to watch the negotiations.But interestingly conciliation is only an administrative function primarily aiming at (1) making the disputants sit together across the table so as to understand the justifications of their respective stands on the issues at stake (2) identifying the issues that are quickly resolvable and inducing the disputants accordingly (3) understanding the hidden agenda behind the respective stands of the parties and therefore bringing out only the contentious issues for an open discussion and finally inducing the disputants to take amicable decisions mutually beneficial in the long run.So, purposely the Industrial Disputes Act,1947 does not confer any special powers on the conciliation officer and leaves every thing to his own ingenuity.In such a critical function crowding of the venue of the proceedings will be a great disadvantage and therefore the view of Saikumar basing on rule 58 of the Central Rules,1957 seems acceptable to me.