Delhi High Court: A Single Judge Bench comprising of Anu Malhotra, J. gave a decision by upholding the decision of Presiding Officer of Labour Court-X, Karkardooma, Delhi, regarding the illegal termination of services of the workmen.
In the present case, services of two work persons Laxmi and Raj Kumar were allegedly terminated by the management i.e. New Delhi Institute of Management.
It was contended by the management; both the work persons were appointed on ad hoc basis and thus the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 would not be applied. Nevertheless, both of them were paid the salary higher than the market standard. As per the statement of claim, the management was not providing the legal facilities such as PF, ESI, appointment letter, attendance card, leave book, payslip, annual and casual leave, overtime wages, bonus etc. to its employees and on their demanding the minimum wages, the management got annoyed with them and terminated the services of both the stated work persons on obtaining their signatures on blank papers. Further, their claim was entertained by the Labour Conciliation Officer but no settlement was arrived at.
Management had failed to prove that Raj Kumar had made a request for settlement of his dues as he had taken up some other job and similarly Laxmi had made a request for settlement of her dues as she was not in a position to continue her services and thus it was held that the management had failed to prove that the resignations were voluntary, which led to illegal termination of the workmen. Management had assailed the award contending the impugned award to be erroneous and proceeded on wrong presumption of law and facts.
Workmen had submitted that the management was misleading the Court by interpreting the salary vouchers as being towards ‘full and final’ settlement. The phrase ‘full and final payment’ was later inserted by the management malafide to thwart the course of justice. Further, the workmen contended that they had never resigned and their services were terminated by the management.
Hence, on consideration of the record available, the Court was of the view that the Labour Court’s decision cannot be faulted as there is no error of law that is apparent on the face of record of the impugned award. No requisite notice was issued to the workmen for termination of their services; they could have been terminated in accordance with Section 25 F of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, which having not been done so, it was rightly concluded by the labour Court that the termination of services of the workmen was in contravention of the law and was illegal.
The writ petitions were disposed of accordingly. [Laxmi v. New Delhi Institute of Management,2018 SCC OnLine Del 12290, decided on 03-11-2018]
