STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Justice Rahul Bharti of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court in a significant order took serious note for causal approach of Officers in the handling of litigation against the Government and the State.
While dismissing the petition filed by PHE Department against the award passed by the Jammu and Kashmir Industrial Tribunal/Labour Court, Jammu, Justice Rahul Bharti after hearing AAG R.S Jamwal for the UT whereas Adv Aseem Sawhney for the respondents (casual labours), observed that “Stitch in time saves nine” is a mantra which perhaps for the government officials and administrators is more a matter of precept rather than practice which they habitually miss in applying in the handling of litigation against the Government and the State only to end up crying over spilt milk. The mindset with which the officials and authorities of the government department/s conduct themselves in handling litigation for and against the government officials/administrators/departments is dereliction and default prone taking it as given that the court/s or the tribunal/s will carry the baton for the government authority/ department involved in the litigation. The present case is a fitting exhibit of the said mindset of the government official involved in the case.
A litigation which originated in 1992 but left uncared in the course of its making has come to bother the Public Health Engineering Department, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir staring with a liability of payment of Rs.93,150/- along with recurring interest to each of the eight respondents in the present petition from escaping which the present writ petition, filed in the year 2003, was and is a poor legal effort which was destined to fail from the very first day of its institution and that inevitable is happening through the medium of this judgment.
The eight respondents herein, who were engaged purportedly as daily wagers with the Public Health Engineering Department, Doda, had come to suffer without notice disengagement effected from 01.05.1992. Being aggrieved of the same, the respondents had come forward with a joint writ petition no. 869/1992 titled ‘Parvesh Raj and others vs. State and others’ before this Court which was allowed to be withdrawn in terms of an order dated 25.11.1992 with liberty reserved in favour of the respondents to resort to the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 for seeking redressal of their purported grievance against their alleged retrenchment/disengagement from the employment. Justice Rahul Bharti after hearing both the sides observed that the principle of delay and laches is not petitioner sensitive that in case the delay and laches suffering writ petition is by the government or its officials then the court has to relax the application of principle, and if the petition is by a private person/concern then the court has to enforce it with full vigor. Law and its principles are even-handed in application. In fact, the filing of this amendment application was prompted by the fact that in absence of challenge to the award dated 16.09.1998 of the Jammu & Kashmir Industrial Tribunal, Jammu, the challenge posed in the writ petition to the judgment/award dated 14.05.2002 of the Labour Court would have failed as a house of cards. In fact, the Supreme Court of India in the case of “Edukanti Kistamma Vs. V. Venkatareddy” has held that it is settled legal proposition that challenge to consequential award without challenging the basic order/statutory provision on the basis of which the order has been passed cannot be entertained and therefore it is a legal obligation on the part of the party to challenge the basic order and only if the same is found to be wrong, the consequential order may be examined.
Thus, even if by some stretch of reasoning and reference at the end of the petitioner there is and was any lacuna attending the industrial award dated 16.09.1998 of the Jammu & Kashmir Industrial Tribunal, Jammu still the long course of time for which this industrial award remained unquestioned thereby generating a settled expectation in favour of the respondents in the context of their claim for back wages cannot now be allowed to frustrate the said settled expectation of the respondents, who at the end of the day, were and are of very poor section of the society whose only capital at their disposal for earning their livelihood was their bodily labour, which they had invested and lent to the Public Health Engineering Department, Doda, before they had come to suffer disengagement and retrenchment which came to be held illegal and in violation of the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
Court further observed that considering the facts and circumstances of the case, this Court is at loss to appreciate the situation as to how in the original writ petition without ever questioning the industrial award dated 16.09.1998 of the Jammu & Kashmir Industrial Tribunal passed in favour of the respondents and against the petitioner, the petitioner could be said and heard to have any grievance against the impugned judgment/award dated 14.05.2002, which did nothing except to compute the amount of the back wages due and payable in favour of the respondents from the petitioner’s end in the light of the industrial award dated 16.09.1998 of the Jammu &Kashmir Industrial Tribunal. In fact, in the grounds of the challenge in the writ petition the petitioner herein is questioning the very jurisdiction of the Jammu & Kashmir Industrial Tribunal in entertaining the petition against the Public Health Engineering Department mentioning it not to be an Industry to be covered under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and further is also questioning the very factual basis of the claim made by the respondents for the back wages.
In fact, if read between the lines, the petitioner has literally condemned the industrial award dated 16.09.1998 without making any whisper of reference to it.
This Court cannot hit from back the industrial award dated 16.09.1998. This Court cannot lend any assistance in favour of the petitioner to relieve the Public Health Engineering Division, Doda from the consequences of the duly gazetted industrial award dated 16.09.1998 read with judgment/award dated 14.05.2002 of the Jammu &Kashmir Industrial Tribunal and, as such, this petition is found to be meritless and deserves dismissal.
While dismissing the petition, Justice Rahul Bharti observed that this Court would take the opportunity to register its observation that at the end of the Government Departments there operates a tendency to take with non-seriousness the cases filed by the employees/workmen against the Government Departments before the Industrial Tribunal/Labour Court under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 as if the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 is not meant for the consumption of the Government Department of the UT of J&K and Ladakh and, as such, when the consequences come into picture from the proceedings originating from the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, then the Government Department/s are found resorting to shadow chasing to relieve itself/themselves from the situation of its/their own acts of omission and commission but it becomes too late for the Department/s to relieve itself/themselves from the legal consequences borne out of the adjudication of the industrial dispute/matter from the Industrial Tribunal/Labour Court. The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 is one of the legislations which is very active in use and operation having created not only rights and liabilities of the workmen/employees covered by it but also the adjudicatory mechanism to deal with the grievances of the employees/workmen and, as such, it is high time for the Government and its official to enlighten themselves to take seriously the pending proceedings before the Industrial Tribunal/Labour Courts in which the Government Departments/ Offices/Officials found themselves as respondents.
With these observations, this writ petition is hereby put to disposal by dismissal. The petitioner or for that matter the Public Health Engineering Department, Doda UT of Jammu and Kashmir shall be well advised to honor the compliance of the judgment/award dated 14.05.2002 of the Jammu and Kashmir Industrial Tribunal/Labour Court, Jammu, High Court ordered.
n state times news
JAMMU: Justice Rahul Bharti of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court in a significant order took serious note for causal approach of Officers in the handling of litigation against the Government and the State.
While dismissing the petition filed by PHE Department against the award passed by the Jammu and Kashmir Industrial Tribunal/Labour Court, Jammu, Justice Rahul Bharti after hearing AAG R.S Jamwal for the UT whereas Adv Aseem Sawhney for the respondents (casual labours), observed that “Stitch in time saves nine” is a mantra which perhaps for the government officials and administrators is more a matter of precept rather than practice which they habitually miss in applying in the handling of litigation against the Government and the State only to end up crying over spilt milk. The mindset with which the officials and authorities of the government department/s conduct themselves in handling litigation for and against the government officials/administrators/departments is dereliction and default prone taking it as given that the court/s or the tribunal/s will carry the baton for the government authority/ department involved in the litigation. The present case is a fitting exhibit of the said mindset of the government official involved in the case.
A litigation which originated in 1992 but left uncared in the course of its making has come to bother the Public Health Engineering Department, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir staring with a liability of payment of Rs.93,150/- along with recurring interest to each of the eight respondents in the present petition from escaping which the present writ petition, filed in the year 2003, was and is a poor legal effort which was destined to fail from the very first day of its institution and that inevitable is happening through the medium of this judgment.
The eight respondents herein, who were engaged purportedly as daily wagers with the Public Health Engineering Department, Doda, had come to suffer without notice disengagement effected from 01.05.1992. Being aggrieved of the same, the respondents had come forward with a joint writ petition no. 869/1992 titled ‘Parvesh Raj and others vs. State and others’ before this Court which was allowed to be withdrawn in terms of an order dated 25.11.1992 with liberty reserved in favour of the respondents to resort to the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 for seeking redressal of their purported grievance against their alleged retrenchment/disengagement from the employment. Justice Rahul Bharti after hearing both the sides observed that the principle of delay and laches is not petitioner sensitive that in case the delay and laches suffering writ petition is by the government or its officials then the court has to relax the application of principle, and if the petition is by a private person/concern then the court has to enforce it with full vigor. Law and its principles are even-handed in application. In fact, the filing of this amendment application was prompted by the fact that in absence of challenge to the award dated 16.09.1998 of the Jammu & Kashmir Industrial Tribunal, Jammu, the challenge posed in the writ petition to the judgment/award dated 14.05.2002 of the Labour Court would have failed as a house of cards. In fact, the Supreme Court of India in the case of “Edukanti Kistamma Vs. V. Venkatareddy” has held that it is settled legal proposition that challenge to consequential award without challenging the basic order/statutory provision on the basis of which the order has been passed cannot be entertained and therefore it is a legal obligation on the part of the party to challenge the basic order and only if the same is found to be wrong, the consequential order may be examined.
Thus, even if by some stretch of reasoning and reference at the end of the petitioner there is and was any lacuna attending the industrial award dated 16.09.1998 of the Jammu & Kashmir Industrial Tribunal, Jammu still the long course of time for which this industrial award remained unquestioned thereby generating a settled expectation in favour of the respondents in the context of their claim for back wages cannot now be allowed to frustrate the said settled expectation of the respondents, who at the end of the day, were and are of very poor section of the society whose only capital at their disposal for earning their livelihood was their bodily labour, which they had invested and lent to the Public Health Engineering Department, Doda, before they had come to suffer disengagement and retrenchment which came to be held illegal and in violation of the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
Court further observed that considering the facts and circumstances of the case, this Court is at loss to appreciate the situation as to how in the original writ petition without ever questioning the industrial award dated 16.09.1998 of the Jammu & Kashmir Industrial Tribunal passed in favour of the respondents and against the petitioner, the petitioner could be said and heard to have any grievance against the impugned judgment/award dated 14.05.2002, which did nothing except to compute the amount of the back wages due and payable in favour of the respondents from the petitioner’s end in the light of the industrial award dated 16.09.1998 of the Jammu &Kashmir Industrial Tribunal. In fact, in the grounds of the challenge in the writ petition the petitioner herein is questioning the very jurisdiction of the Jammu & Kashmir Industrial Tribunal in entertaining the petition against the Public Health Engineering Department mentioning it not to be an Industry to be covered under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and further is also questioning the very factual basis of the claim made by the respondents for the back wages.
In fact, if read between the lines, the petitioner has literally condemned the industrial award dated 16.09.1998 without making any whisper of reference to it.
This Court cannot hit from back the industrial award dated 16.09.1998. This Court cannot lend any assistance in favour of the petitioner to relieve the Public Health Engineering Division, Doda from the consequences of the duly gazetted industrial award dated 16.09.1998 read with judgment/award dated 14.05.2002 of the Jammu &Kashmir Industrial Tribunal and, as such, this petition is found to be meritless and deserves dismissal.
While dismissing the petition, Justice Rahul Bharti observed that this Court would take the opportunity to register its observation that at the end of the Government Departments there operates a tendency to take with non-seriousness the cases filed by the employees/workmen against the Government Departments before the Industrial Tribunal/Labour Court under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 as if the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 is not meant for the consumption of the Government Department of the UT of J&K and Ladakh and, as such, when the consequences come into picture from the proceedings originating from the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, then the Government Department/s are found resorting to shadow chasing to relieve itself/themselves from the situation of its/their own acts of omission and commission but it becomes too late for the Department/s to relieve itself/themselves from the legal consequences borne out of the adjudication of the industrial dispute/matter from the Industrial Tribunal/Labour Court. The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 is one of the legislations which is very active in use and operation having created not only rights and liabilities of the workmen/employees covered by it but also the adjudicatory mechanism to deal with the grievances of the employees/workmen and, as such, it is high time for the Government and its official to enlighten themselves to take seriously the pending proceedings before the Industrial Tribunal/Labour Courts in which the Government Departments/ Offices/Officials found themselves as respondents.
With these observations, this writ petition is hereby put to disposal by dismissal. The petitioner or for that matter the Public Health Engineering Department, Doda UT of Jammu and Kashmir shall be well advised to honor the compliance of the judgment/award dated 14.05.2002 of the Jammu and Kashmir Industrial Tribunal/Labour Court, Jammu, High Court ordered.
