MUNICIPAL WORKERS UNION Vs. STATE OF RAJ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner - Union espousing the cause of widow Smt. Bhanwari Devi wife of deceased workman Purutam Giri @ Purushottam Giri has filed the present writ petition aggrieved by the order Annex.2 dtd.4.9.2008 whereby the Dy. Secretary of the Labour Department, Government of Rajasthan while admitting that the workman was entitled to payment of wages for the period from 1.9.1999 to 22.8.2000, totalling to Rs. 20,400/ - , however, he could approach the Payment of Wages Authority under the provisions of Payment of Wages Act and therefore, the reference under Section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 was liable to be refused.

(2.) The learned counsel for the petitioner Mr. Vijay Mehta urged that there is no such prohibition under the provisions of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 that even though the workman or the registered Union could approach the concerned authority under the provisions of Payment of Wages Act, they could not approach the Industrial Tribunal for the same relief. He, therefore, urged that the said competent authority Dy. Secretary has grossly erred in rejecting the referent even though the liability to pay such wages for the aforesaid period was admitted by the State Government.

(3.) THE case in hand presents a very queer situation where a poor lady, the widow of a deceased workman whose cause was being espoused by the registered trade union - present petitioner, namely, Municipal Workers Union, has not received the said wages due to her husband for the relevant contemporary period 1.9.1999 to 22.8.2000 amounting to Rs. 20,400/ - for the typical bureaucratic red tape attitude of the respondents. The impugned order Annex.2 dtd.4.9.2008 passed by the Dy. Secretary of the Labour Department of the Government of Rajasthan is ex -facie unsustainable and illegal. There is no prohibition in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 for seeking reference by the workman or registered Trade Union espousing the cause of the workman to seek such reference under Section 10 of the Act. While admitting the liability to pay such wages which could not be paid during the contemporary period only on account of lack of proper financial sanction for the same, which was absolutely an internal affair between the State Government and the employer Municipal Corporation, Jodhpur, the workman/his family member, the present widow was not given the said payment and to add insult to the injury, reference was refused in an absolutely mechanical and arbitrary manner by the said concerned authority.