Is it right to refuse interest after the controlling authority passed orders?
Isaac Gabriel
(Querist) 30 July 2012
This query is : Resolved
The Gratuity claim was ordered with interest by the controlling authority.But the management forced the employee to forgo interest in case he desired immediate disbursement,or else to go an appeal against the order.To justify its action, the management entered into/forced a settlement under section 18(1) of the ID act with the employee for receiving the award amount without interest.Is it not an unfair labour practice? What is the remedy?
prabhakar singh
(Expert) 30 July 2012
Indeed it was a very tricky compromise,but what caused employee to surrender in such a manner after the order of the controlling authority?Did he complain it any where before
or after such a compromise that he was being forced to do so by the management or by any circumstance that caused him to enter in to such a compromise without his freewill. The only remedy may to get such a compromise set aside proving that consent to the compromise was not free.
Isaac Gabriel
(Querist) 30 July 2012
Thank you very much sir for your immediate response.The management created file against and issued termination notice.Further the urgency of employee to raise funds for his domestic needs made him to surrender to the management.This predicament forced him to surrender.Now he is free from the clutches of the management.Can a petition be filed with the controlling authority now for interest?
prabhakar singh
(Expert) 30 July 2012
In my opinion without taking steps to cancel the settlement arrived at under section 18(1) of the ID act,other steps may prove futile.
prabhakar singh
(Expert) 30 July 2012
You should look into the rules framed by state concerned to check if any remedy to set aside such compromise is provided or not as in cases where jurisdiction of civil court is expressly barred and no relief provided in such Acts or rules,only writ would be the remedy.
Isaac Gabriel
(Querist) 22 March 2019
After six years of legal battle,the writ court has held that section 14 of the Payment of gratuity Act has an overriding effect and ordered for the payment of interest in accordance with the orders of the controlling authority and quashed the settlement under section 18(1)of the ID Act.
