OM PRAKASH Vs. OLD VILLAGE INDUSTRIES LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY the present petition, the Petitioners challenge the award dated 21st January, 2008 passed by the learned Presiding Officer, Labour Court in the industrial dispute ID No. 225/2006 wherein the learned trial court awarded a compensation of Rs. 35,000.00 each in favour of Petitioner Nos. 1 and 3 and a compensation of Rs. 40,000.00 in favour of the Petitioner No. 2 in lieu of reinstatement and full back wages.

(2.) LEARNED counsel for the Petitioners contends that the learned trial court, while passing the award, has failed to consider that the workmen/Petitioners had worked with the Management for quite sometime. Learned Labour Court wrongly placed reliance on Employers, Management of Central P&D Inst. Ltd. vs. Union of India and another, AIR 2005 SC 633, Pramod Kumar and another vs. Presiding Officer and another, 123 (2005) DLT 509 (DB) and Indian Hydraulic Industries Pvt. Ltd. vs. Kishan Devi and Bhagwati Devi and others, ILR (2007) I Delhi 219 while passing the impugned award. These judgments would not justify the compensation amount awarded in the present case as the facts of these cases are quite different from that of the present case. In Employers, Management of Central P & D Industries Ltd. (supra) the Hon'ble Supreme Court awarded the compensation of Rs. 25,000.00 to the employee when he refused to join duty despite reinstatement and had joined somewhere else. In Pramod Kumar (supra) the workmen had worked for only two years with the Management hence a compensation of Rs. 50,000.00 was awarded and lastly in Kishan Devi (supra) compensation to the tune of 50% back wages was granted where the workmen were part time sweepers for two hours a day. However, in the present case the Petitioner Nos. 1 and 3 had worked for approximately nine years with the Respondent and petitioner no. 2 for approximately eleven years and in such a case, awarding such a meager compensation is neither proper nor justified. Looking at the service rendered by the workmen, the compensation should have been of a substantial amount. Even in the case where the industry was declared as a sick unit, the Hon'ble Supreme Court had awarded a compensation for a sum of Rs. 2,00,000.00 in lieu of reinstatement and back wages. Reliance is placed on Talwara Coop Credit and Service Society ltd. vs. Sushil Kumar, JT (2008) 11 SC 1 in support of this contention. Learned counsel further contends that the Management has failed to prove that the workmen had remained unauthorizedly absent from their duties from 3 rd April, 1999. The workmen had not participated in the strike on 4 th April, 1999 and in fact they were not allowed to join on duty by the Management. It is lastly contended that before the learned Trial Court the Management/Respondent has nowhere stated that it has closed its manufacturing activities and there are no employees on the roll of establishment since then. In fact the Management is continuously running its manufacturing unit and exporting readymade garments business. It has also various sister concerns in various parts of Delhi and the documents/letters produced by the Management along with their counter affidavit are forged and fabricated.

(3.) I have heard learned counsel for the Petitioner and perused the Trial Court record.