Sounder Rajan V (Advocate) 26 December 2010

CHANGES IN ENFORCEMENT OF AWARDS OF LABOUR COURT

Dear All

Changes made by the recent amendments to Section 11 of the Industrial Disputes Act –Enforcing the Awards of Labour Court.these amendments came into force w.e.f mid September 2010.

In section 11 of the principal Act, after sub-section eight , the following sub-sections shall be inserted, namely:

“(9) Every award made, order issued or settlement arrived at by or before Labour Court or Tribunal or National Tribunal shall be executed in accordance with the procedure laid down for execution of orders and decree of a Civil Court under order 21 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908

(10) The Labour Court or Tribunal or National Tribunal, as the case may be, shall transmit any award, order or settlement to a Civil Court having jurisdiction and such Civil Court shall execute the award, order or settlement as if it were a decree passed by it.”

By introduction of the provision the award of Labour Court / Tribunals is now additionally executable by a Civil Court. After the Labour Court/Tribunal passes the award it shall be transmitted to the Civil Court for execution. By this process both the moveable and immovable property of the Judgment Debtor i.e. the person/company against whom the award is passed can be attached. Also the Judgment Debtor can be arrested and put in prison. Earlier the awards were executed by the Revenue Recovery process alone.

With Regards

V.Sounder Rajan
VS Rajan Associates,
Advocate & Notaries & Legal Consultants
No.27, Ist Floor, Singapore Plaza,
No.164, Linghi Chetty Street,
Chennai - 600 001.
E-mail : rajanassociates@eth,net,
Off : 044-42620864, 044-65874684,
Mobile : 9840142164-9025792684-9025792634

Reply Follow

4 Replies

Kumar Doab (FIN) 26 December 2010

Thanks for your post.

darshana sawant (associate consultant) 28 December 2010

The amendment to the Industrial Disputes Act with respect to enforceability has given some teeth to the Act. Because till date the parties were taking it very casually due to almost no consequences of non following of the award of the courts. But this in turn will lengthen the process as the civil courts are already burdened with so many other cases.

Divakaran (Advocate) 28 December 2010

What really needed is to firstly consolidate the laws relating to executability of Decrees/Orders/Awards etc., since the enforcement machanisim is still not very effective and the burden of executing it still lies in the hands of the claimant/Victim. The proceedure of running after and gathering details of the assets, and other properties is tedious and rarely completed. There needs to be a system wherein the properties automatically vest with the concerned jurisdiction court once the verdict reaches its finality and thereafter the Judgement debtor/respondent needs to apply to the court for releasing the property from such automatic attachment on valid and justified reasons. Secondly the Establishment of exclusive courts with proper jurisdiction powers for execution of such decrees/awards/judgement is of utmost importance. Burdening the Civil court further with such additional tasks is only helping the evasive debtors from the clutches of the law.

However, the begining made in this regard is welcome and further steps to strengthen the system is needed urgently.