EID PARRY INDIA LTD Vs. M N PADMANABHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPELLANT/management has filed this appeal aggrieved over the order, dated 15.12.2000, passed by a learned single Judge in W.P.No.2573 of 1994, whereby the order of the second respondent, in rejecting the first respondent/workman's application for making a reference under Section 2-A of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, was set aside.

(2.) ACCORDING to the first respondent/workman, he joined service in the appellant company as a Clerk on 18.03.1959 and after working at various places, he was lastly posted at Cuddalore Branch in the Farms Inputs Division; he was a member of E.I.D.Parry Staff Association, a registered trade union; he put in 34 years of service; there was a scheme called Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) introduced by the appellant on 01.06.1993, which was available to the employees, who had completed 10 years of service or 40 years of age, which scheme provided for financial assistance besides normal terminal benefits to employees, who opted to leave the service under the Scheme; through a letter, dated 13.07.1993, he opted for the said Scheme; on 21.07.1993, a settlement between him and the appellant was reached under Section 18 (1) of the Industrial Disputes Act,1947, and the payments towards gratuity, provident fund etc., were made to him by the appellant; thereafter, he sent a letter, dated 21.07.1993, to the appellant, alleging that the application for VRS was obtained under coercion and he was deprived of pension; hence, he raised an industrial dispute under Section 2-A of the Act before the second respondent, claiming that the alleged settlement was not legal and that he was coerced to sign such a settlement and, therefore, he could not be denied pension; the second respondent, by his order dated 03.01.1994, dismissed his claim, stating that the dispute raised by him did not come within the purview of Section 2-A, aggrieved over which, he filed the Writ Petition, which was allowed by a learned single Judge.

(3.) THE mainstay of the learned Senior Counsel is that after the amount is paid and the employee ceases to be under the employment of the company or the undertaking, there is no question of his again agitating for any kind of his past rights with his erstwhile employer, for the reason that if the employee is still permitted to raise a grievance regarding pension, even after he has opted for Voluntary Retirement Scheme and accepted the amounts paid to him, the whole purpose of introducing the Scheme would be totally frustrated.