Dear Prashanth,
It would have been a bit more comfortable had the extract of the operative portion of the particular award been furnished with the query. Anyway, once the dismissal of an employee is held to be unsustainable by the adjudicator, then the normal relief could be reinstatement with all attendant benefits from the date of dismissal. However, departure from this normal relief is also possible on two ocassions - (1) when the dismissed employee attaining the age of superannuation before the passing of the award or dieing during the pendency of the proceedings, the relief of reinstatement would become infructuous because of the impossibility of implementation and as such award of monetary compensation from the date of cause of action till the date of normal superannuation or death of the employee as the case may be would be the suitable relief or (2) If there are reasons to be recorded like gainful employment of the employee during the period of non-employment or unexplained delay in instituting the proceedings, then the adjudicator can restrict the retrospective operation of the award as appears reasonable to him like reinstatement sans back wages or with 50% of back wages. Only in the case of an award directing reinstatement with full back-wages, the employee is in an advantageous position of seeking relief u/s 17B of the Industrial Disputes Act,1947 when the employer prefers any proceedings against such award in a High Court or the Supreme Court. In such a situation, again what is more important is the subject-matter of the appeal i.e whether the appeal is against the award in its entirety or only against the part of back wages. Here, we have to carefully analyze the provisions of Sec.17B. Once the employer prefers an appeal against the award as a whole, the question of non-implementation of the award is relegated to the back-ground because the very admissibility of the appeal is subject to payment of wages as stipulated under section 17B. Sec17B enjoins upon the employer/appellent the responsibility of payment of full wages last-drawn by the employee/respondent during the entire period of the appeal proceedings whether in a High Court or the Supreme Court. If the appeal is only against the back-wages aspect of the impugned award, it implies that the employee is reinstated and as such the question of payment during the pendency of the appeal proceedings does not arise.