BALESHWAR MANDAL Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition was filed in the year, 1989 and was admitted by an order dated 8th May, 1990 out since then there is no counter by the State. Nobody has cared to appear when the matter was called on for hearing nor adjournment has been prayed for. After hearing the learned Counsel for the Petitioners, this Court decides to finally dispose of the matter.

(2.) This writ petition has been filed by forty eight persons who claim to be employees of the Darbhanga Medical College and Hostel and have been engaged in Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital at Laheriasarai, which is run by the Government of Bihar. Their further case is that they have been working for the last 14 years in the said Darbhanga Medical College and Hostel without any break and without any complaint from any quarter. They have slated that even today they have been paid monthly salary of Rs. 104 as a consolidated amount.

(3.) It goes without saying that for performance of duties in Darbhanga Medical College and Hostel, the payment of a paltry sum of Rs. 104/- as salary per month is a clear instance of exploitation of human labour at the instance of the State. Possibly it will not be disputed that the Government of Bihar functions under the constitutional, framework and as the Apex Court has reminded that the State is to act like model employer being consistent with the conscience it a Social Welfare State. In that context the action of the Respondents in paying Rs. 104/- to the Petitioners per month makes it clear that the said concept of Social Welfare State has been given a complete go-bye in actual practice.