HARI KISHAN SHARMA Vs. UNION TERRITORY CHANDIGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this Revision Petition filed under Article 227 of the Constitution of India the petitioner who is a retired Railway employee, has prayed for a direction to the respondents to recover and pay to him an amount of Rs. 63,800/- with interest in view of the order of the presiding Officer, Central Govt. Industrial Tribunal-cum- Labour Court, Chandigarh dated October 19,1987 pursuant to which recovery notice Annexure P-1 dated October 9, 1989 was issued by the office of Regional Labour Commissioner (Central) Chandigarh to the Collector Chandigarh for the recovery of the aforesaid amount.

(2.) I have heard the petitioner in person. It is the conceded case that the order of the Labour Court dated October 19,1987 has become final and no further steps have been taken by the Northern Railway to challenge it. In this view of the matter the amount claimed by the petitioner is without a doubt due to him. It is, however, surprising that despite the order of the Labour Court, the Management i.e. the Northern Railway has not yet complied with the directions given therein and the matter is still pending since October, 1987. The present petition is, therefore, allowed and a direction is issued to respondent No. 1 to take steps now to ensure that the recovery notice Annexure P-l is enforced and the recovery of the amount of Rs. 63,800/- is effected and paid to the petitioner. It is to be noted that before Labour Court, the case of the petitioner was that he was entitled to the sum of Rs. 63, 800/- as he ought to have been promoted from an earlier date. This plea was accepted by the Labour Court resulting in the award and promotion with retrospective effect i.e. March 1985, was given to the petitioner. It is, therefore, apparent that the amount of Rs. 63, 800/- has been denied to the petitioner with effect from March, 1985.1 am, therefore of the view that as the amount has been wrongly with held from the petitioner and even for a period of six years after the order of the Labour Court, it is a fit case where in addition to the sum of Rs. 63,800/- interest at the rate of 10% per annum from March 1985 till the date of recovery is given to the petitioner.