DELHI JAL BOARD Vs. VIMAL KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Vimal Kumar, (hereinafter referred to as "the respondent") was working as Sewer Cleaning Machine (SCM) driver, with the petitioner which was earlier part of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi when he received Office Order No. 257 (Distt.) CSE dated 10th September 1990, addressed to him by the petitioner, stating that his name had been struck off from the rolls of the petitioner as SCM driver "with immediate effect i.e. 19th November 1990". He assailed his termination by raising an industrial dispute, which stands adjudicated by the Labour Court vide the impugned Award dated 29th May 2003, which holds the termination of the respondent to be violative of Section 25-F of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (hereinafter referred to as "the ID Act") and, consequently, directs reinstatement of the respondent with full back wages and continuity of service. The petitioner, aggrieved thereby, has approached this Court, by means of the present writ petition. The Facts and the Dispute

(2.) It would be apposite, before wading into any legal thickets, to undertake a leisurely peregrination through the facts.

(3.) In January 1987, the respondent was employed, by the Delhi Water Supply and Sewage Disposal Undertaking, a Department of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), on muster roll basis, as SCM Driver. It may be mentioned here, that the petitioner, as a pre-existing employee of the Delhi Water Supply and Sewage Disposal Undertaking, became an employee of the Delhi Jal Board (the respondent before this Court), by virtue of Section 46(1)(c) of the Delhi Water Board Act, 1998, on the same terms and conditions as applied to him as an employee of the Delhi Water Supply and Sewage Disposal Undertaking. In order to maintain consistency of recital, this judgement would be referring, whether to the Delhi Water Supply and Sewage Disposal Undertaking or the Delhi Jal Board, as "the petitioner".