ABDUL KALAM ANSARI Vs. BOKARO STEEL PLANT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has approached this Court for quashing the award dtd. 30.12.2008 pronounced on 26.06.2009 (Annexure-2) passed by Ld. Labour Court, Bokaro in Reference Case No.8/07 whereby and whereunder the reference under the award has been decided against the petitioner and it has been held that the Management is correct in retiring the petitioner w.e.f. 30.06.08.

(2.) As per factual matrix, the workman had joined the employment of Bokaro Steel Plant (in short B.S.L.) on 29.6.1973 as 'Khalasi' and has been serving the organization with honesty, sincerity and dedication. The workman was 21 years of age at the time of his employment. This age finds place in the statement sent by the Employment Exchange while sponsoring the workman's name for employment in Bokaro Steel Plant. It is case of the petitioner-workman that at the time of Interview, he was asked to fill up the Attestation Form and personal data Form and in all these documents; his age has been recorded as 21 years. However, since he was not educated, he could not produce authentic proof of his age at the time of his employment and therefore, as per Rules of the Company he was sent to Company's Medical Officer for assessment of his date of birth, whereby his age was assessed as 21 years at the time of his employment in 1973. There was no further query from the Employer side regarding his date of birth until June, 2006 when all of sudden, the Petitioner-workman was asked to fill up pension papers, since according to Management, he has attained 58 years of age in June, 2006. When he enquired about the matter and got age related records verified from his personal file, he came to know that though in the particulars filled up at the time of Interview and in Attestation Form, his date of birth is mentioned as 21 years as in 1973 but there is manipulation in the date of birth column in the P.D. Form and in place of 21 years 25 years is written by striking off the digit 21. The Medical Examination Report wherein his date of birth was assessed as 21 years as in 1973 is available in the Personal file of the workman which is in the custody of Personal Department of B.S.L. The workman first represented to the officers of the Personnel Department to rectify their mistake and to fix his age as 21 years in 1973 but when no heed was paid to his just and valid grievance, the petitioner approached the concerned Department of State Government for referring the matter to the Labour Court for adjudication of the same. Thus, the dispute was referred to Labour Court, Jamshedpur by framing following issue for adjudication:

(3.) Upon receipt of the notification, notices were issued by the learned Labour Court to the parties and the parties appeared and contested their respective cases by filing written statement. Learned Labour Court, after hearing the parties and perusing the evidences and documents brought on record, vide its Award dtd. 30.12.2008 answered the reference in favour of the Management holding therein that: