Anti-labour rulings by lower courts irk Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) has expressed concern over a large number of employees being denied appropriate relief in the name of globalisation and liberalisation of the economy.

The court lamented that some judges also seemed to agree with this new dispensation. “Of late, there has been a visible shift in the courts’ approach in dealing with cases involving the interpretation of social welfare legislations,” a bench comprising justices GS Singhvi and Asok Kumar Ganguly noted on Wednesday.

“The attractive mantras of globalisation and liberalisation are fast becoming the raison d’etre (reason for existence) of the judicial process, and an impression has been created that constitutional courts are no longer sympathetic towards the plight of the industrial and unorganised sectors,” they added.

Of particular concern was the fact that the services of a large number of employees, categorised as workers, were being terminated, often through questionable means.

The court made these remarks while directing the reinstatement of Harjinder Singh, an employee of the public sector unit, the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation. The corporation had illegally terminated Singh’s service.

“It needs no emphasis that if a man is deprived of his livelihood, he is deprived of all his fundamental and constitutional rights and for him the goal of social and economic justice, equality of status and opportunity, remain illusory,” the bench said.