KACHARA VAHATUK SHARAMIK SANGH Vs. AJOY MEHTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present contempt petition was filed by respondents to the Civil Appeal No. 4929 of 2017 for non-compliance of the judgment and order dtd. 7/4/2017, whereby this Court had modified the award of the Industrial Tribunal, Mumbai dated 13.10.2014 as confirmed by the High Court, vide judgment and order dtd. 22/12/2016 passed in Writ Petition No. 11519 of 2014. The Industrial Tribunal by the aforesaid award had directed the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, the appellant before this Court, to treat 2700 employees of the said corporation as permanent employees and accordingly to extend benefits and status retrospectively from the date of completion of 240 days from the date of joining. This Court, vide the aforesaid judgment and order modified the award to some extent and substantially agreed with the relief granted by the Industrial Tribunal. For the sake of convenience, the judgment of this Court dtd. 7/4/2017 is reproduced hereunder:

(2.) The contempt proceedings have been pending since 2018. However, when compliance was not effected despite repeated orders being passed granting time to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (for short,"the BMC"), this Court, vide order dtd. 05.03.2024 found that there was substantial noncompliance of the judgment of this Court dtd. 07.04.2017, and accordingly directed the personal appearance of the Municipal Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioner (SWM), and the Chief Engineer (SWM) on 19.03.2024. Liberty was also granted to the Municipal Commissioner to file up-to-date details of the compliance effected till date.

(3.) On 19.03.2024, the three officers of the BMC appeared before this Court and filed an affidavit placing on record the status of compliance. Once again, this Court, after briefly recording the contents of the affidavits and hearing the counsel for the parties, issued further directions, fixing the next date as 23.04.2024. The personal appearance of the Municipal Commissioner was exempted for the time being. However, the Deputy Commissioner (SWM) and the Chief Engineer (SWM) were directed to remain present on the next date of hearing.