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October 18, 2000
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HC restrains BMC from paying bonus till Nov 14Altogether 140,000 civic workers will have to celebrate Diwali without bonus this year as the Bombay high court on Wednesday restrained Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation from paying ex-gratia to its employees until a petition challenging such payment was finally disposed of. The petition has been filed by former chief secretary to the state government and former municipal commissioner D M Sukhthankar who challenged the civic body's decision to pay bonus to its workers. The order was delivered by Justice B N Srikrishna and Justice Ranjana Desai who adjourned the petition for final hearing on November 14. They also ordered that the ad-interim relief, staying payment of bonus, will continue till then. The judges further directed the Maharashtra government to file an affidavit explaining why it had not intervened in the affairs of the civic body which last week faced a strike by workers over the issue of ex-gratia payment. The judges directed the secretary concerned (in the state government) to file a detailed affidavit explaining why it had in the past adopted the policy of 'wait and watch'. The judges also sought to know from the government why it had not acted upon in terms of Section 520 (b) of the BMC Act, which empowered the state to intervene in case of alleged misuse of public funds by the civic body. Ordering the state to file a detailed affidavit on its stand, the bench directed that all the affidavits filed in response to this petition be served upon all the respondents without fail this weekend. The court had decided to give a top priority to this matter as it raised legal, financial and important public issues, the judges noted. The same bench had on Tuesday granted ad-interim relief by restraining the civic body from disbursing bonus until the matter was heard on Wednesday. In the midst of arguments, counsel for the unions, J P Cama raised the grievance that they had not been served with copies of affidavits filed earlier and even those filed on Wednesday. In such a situation, it would not be possible for the unions to put forth its viewpoint, he said and urged for time. Mahabal Shetty, general secretary of the Municipal Mazdoor Union, filed an affidavit justifying the financial capacity of the civic body to pay ex-gratia. He said even if the estimated deficit of Rs 6.10 billion, reflected in the 1999-2000 budget, was deducted from the income of the same year the civic body could easily meet the burden of Rs 1.06 billion on account of ex-gratia payment to its employees. He said the revenue this year had increased by Rs 3.33 billion compared to the previous year. The civic body, he said, had powers under the BMC Act to pass resolutions to deal with emergent situations. Payment of bonus was covered under such powers, he argued. Such a resolution, he said, was passed on October 16 in exercise of legislative powers of the BMC. Such legislative powers were immune from judicial review. The resolution was passed in respect of a liability, which BMC was capable of meeting. Ex-gratia, he said, had been paid every year since 1985-86 and had become a condition of service, he said. Meanwhile, the Municipal Mazdoor Union leader Sharad Rao told rediff.com that they are going to meet the Bombay Municipal Commissioner V Ranganathan on Thursday and will demand that the BMC pay the ex-gratia amount agreed earlier. Asked, whether the MMU will once again go on strike, he said, "There were no plans on that now. We will decide on some action only after meeting the commissioner." ALSO SEE EARLIER REPORTS |
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