RAKESH KUMAR Vs. FORESTS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this writ petition a daily rated workman under the respondent, namely. The Forest Research Institute and Colleges, (Conifer Research Centre), Simla, seeks a declaration that his retrenchment from service as a daily rated workman is illegal and void and for a direction for issue of a muster -roll to him with all consequential benefits.

(2.) The petitioner was appointed as a daily rated workman for cleaning the office and laboratories of the respondent and also for watch and ward duties. According to him he was retrenched from service on 1st May, 1990 and the respondent refused to issue muster -roll to him; his non -employment, according to him, amounts to retrenchment and the retrenchment is opposed to section 25 -F of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, (hereinafter to be referred to as the Act).

(3.) The respondent has filed an affidavit -in -reply, alongwith a statement Annexure R -A to indicate the number of days that the petitioner had worked each month after his engagement in January 1986. Annexure R -A shows that he had worked for 327 days in 1986 ; 330 days in 1987 ; 75 days in 1988 ; 332 days in 1989 and 107 days until the end of April 1990. He was not engaged from 1st May, 1990 onwards. The number of days that the petitioner had worked, as disclosed by Annexure R -A, would satisfy the requirement of section 25 -B of the Act and subject to the other objections raised by the respondent, he is entitled to the benefits of section 25 -F of the Act The respondent does not dispute that if the petitioner is a workman and the Industrial Disputes Act applies to the present case, the petitioner is entitled to a notice under Clause (a) and retrenchment compensation under Clause (b) of section 25 -F of the Act. There is also no dispute that no such notice or retrenchment compensation was paid in the present case. According to the respondent, the petitioner could not be continued for the reason that there was no work for him from May, 1990 onwards.