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October19, 2003 - [India Thinkers Net] The RAM's who cannot enter a temple. >> |
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'Verdict against strike most disturbing' By J. Venkatesan The Hindu New Delhi Oct. 16 . The recent Supreme Court ruling holding that Government employees do not have legal, moral or fundamental rights to go on strike even for just causes came in for a sharp attack from speakers at a national conference held here today to discuss the implications of the judgment. Led by the Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, N. Ram, the speakers expressed concern over the judgment and said that it affected not only the trade union movement in the country but also the whole community. The conference was organised jointly by the Indian Society of Labour Economics and the Institute for Human Development. Mr. Ram, in his keynote address, quoting the Attorney-General, Soli Sorabjee, said the ruling was uncalled for and the sweeping observations made by the judges were of grave concern. He recalled an earlier Supreme Court judgment in 1989 holding that the right to strike was an important weapon in the armoury of the worker and said that it had been recognised by almost all democratic countries as a mode of redress for resolving the grievances of workers. He felt that the apex court no doubt granted relief to a large number of employees (except 6,072) but failed to address the main issue of dealing with a "draconian law" promulgated by the Tamil Nadu Government. Instead, it had adopted a technique of side-stepping the issue and made unnecessary observations. He said that while even chargesheeted Ministers were allowed to continue in office, employees against whom only First Information Reports were registered were asked to face an inquiry against their dismissal from service. Describing the judgment as the most disturbing and inequitous one, Mr. Ram said that it differed from the earlier pro-labour pronouncements given by eminent judges of the apex court like, V.R. Krishna Iyer, A.H. Ahmadi and Y.V. Chandrachud. He said that India in 2003 could not claim to be a democratic country if the rights of the workers to organise a strike were not protected. He urged the Government of India to immediately ratify two International Conventions relating to the rights of labour. The Vice-Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, G.K. Chadha, said that if it could happen to the organised sector, one could imagine what would be the situation of the employees in the unorganised sector. Referring to the court's observations that employees must be disciplined, he said that it was wrong to say that only one section of the society should adhere to the code of conduct while others would not follow the same code. Prof. Jan Breman, University of Amsterdam, Omkar Goswami, Chief Economist, Confederation of Indian Industry, the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, J.S. Verma, senior advocate, Rajeev Dhavan, the former MP, Kuldip Nayar, and a host of leaders from various political parties spoke on the legal, economic and political implications of the judgment and called for efforts to arrive at a broadbased opinion. |
| << October18, 2003 - [India Thinkers Net] Live worms found in chocolate |
October19, 2003 - [India Thinkers Net] The RAM's who cannot enter a temple. >> |
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