About 1000 cases in waiting for disposal
CL Jose
KOCHI: ‘Justice Delayed is Justice Denied’ is a well-known proverb that carries a clear and serious message.
If anyone wants to drive home the real meaning of this saying with the help of an example, here is an ideal one – just narrate the story of the Central Government Industrial Tribunal (CGIT)-cum-Labour Courts (CGIT-cum-LCs) in Ernakulam.
CGIT-cum-LCs has been set up with a clear mandate for the adjudication of industrial disputes arising in the Central Sphere. The entities covered under the CGIT-cum-LCs include the large industrial units, from both public and private sector, banks, insurance companies and the likes operating from the state.
One would be surprised to know that this court, vested with the responsibility to maintain justice in the state’s industrial space, has not been functioning at all for about 24 months for want of a presiding judge.
What does this mean to the thousands of labourers and employees seeking justice in disputes with their managements? Since CGIT-cum-LCs has not been functioning for the past close to two years, more than 1000 cases are hanging in balance waiting for a conclusion, according to informed sources.
These include all disputes coming under the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA). According to an advocate familiar with this court, there could be hundreds of aggrieved employees waiting for a fair verdict in an unlawful dismissal case or a fair deal in a case involving violation of agreement on the part of management, and so forth.
“The sad part of this unheard-of story of a ‘court without cases’, is that until and unless a presiding judge is appointed, these employees whose justice is inordinately delayed will have to wait with their fingers crossed for a light at the end of the tunnel,” said advocate KV George, while speaking to businessbenchmark.news.
“The CGIT-cum-LCs have been set up in the country with the objective of maintaining peace and harmony in the industrial sector by ‘quick and timely’ disposal of industrial disputes through adjudication so that industrial growth does not suffer on account of any widespread industrial unrest,” is what the official site of CGIT-cum-LCs says.
Labour Commissioner
In fact, cases don’t land up at CGIT-cum-LCs directly. In the event of a dispute, it is initially referred to the Labour Commissioner for the conciliation process and if it fails to bring out a positive result, it will be marked as failure of conciliation (FoC).
And the FoC events are referred to the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment. It is this ministry that decides whether the case merits to be referred to the respective CGIT-cum-LCs in the state or be dismissed without further action.
According to sources, though a few presiding judges have been appointed in this court in deputation from the neighbouring states, they never bothered to organize sittings, but rather spent time to address administrative issues, if any.
