Corporatisation Of Ordnance Factories And EDSA 2021 Is Now Under Judicial Scrutiny
Referendum held in 13 Factories shows almost 100% of the Employees are against Government decision to Corporatise Ordnance Factories
On the one side the Trade Unions and Federations of the Defence Civilian Employees are observing different types of agitations against the Govt. decision to Corporatise the Ordnance Factories and also against the Essential Defence Services Act passed by the Indian Parliament. A Referendum in all the ordnance Factories on Corporatisation is going on. So far Referendum has been held in 13 Factories and almost 100% of the Employees have voted against the Government decision to Corporatise the Ordnance Factories.
www.indianpsu.com will be separately filing a story on this once the Referendum is completed by 18/09/2021. In the meantime we have already reported that the All India Defence Employees Federation have approached the High Court of Delhi against EDSA-2021 and the High Court of Madras against Corporatisation. As a coincidence, both the case came for hearing on 16/09/2021 and after listening to the pleadings of the senior lawyers of AIDEF, both the Courts have issued notice to the government. In this regard a press release issued by the All India Defence Employees Federation is published here for the benefit of the viewers of www.indianpsu.com –
DELHI HIGH COURT ISSUED NOTICE TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA IN THE CASE FILED BY AIDEF AGAINST ESSENTIAL DEFENCE SERVICE ACT 2021!
MADRAS HIGH COURT ISSUED NOTICE TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA IN THE CASE FILED BY AIDEF AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT DECISION TO CORPORATISE THE ORDNANCE FACTORIES!
The Government of India on the 16 th of June 2021 in the Cabinet meeting took a decision to splinter the 220 years old 41 Ordnance Factories into 7 non viable Corporations. This decision of the Modi Government was against all the previous assurances and agreements with the Federations of Trade Unions. Since the decision of the Government is not in the interest of the security of the country and also against the service conditions of more than 76,000 defence civilian employees the Federations have taken a decision to go for an Indefinite strike against the Government decision. However to curb the democratic and constitutional right of the Defence civilian employees the Government promulgated Essential Defence Services Ordinance 2021 on 30-06-2021 prohibiting strike in Defence services and by incorporating draconian provisions such as one year imprisonment for participation in the strike, two years imprisonment for instigating strike, dismissal of employees without the mandatory inquiry, giving full powers to the police to arrest the strikers without warrant to the police. Subsequently this Ordinance was passed in the Parliament as Essential Defence Services Act 2021 without any discussion in the Parliament.
The All India Defence Employees Federations challenged both the above decisions of the Government in the Madras High Court and Delhi High Court. On 16-09-2021 the writ petition filed by AIDEF against Corporatization of Ordnance Factories in the Madras High Court came for hearing before the Honorable Justice Mahadevan, Senior advocate Shri. Ravikumar Paul advanced arguments on behalf of the employees and the AIDEF. At the hearing the learned Additional Solicitor General took notice on behalf of Government of India and requested two weeks time to file counter. At this juncture Advocate of the petitioner pointed out to the Court that the status of the employees as civil servants needs to be protected in the meanwhile. In response to the said submission the Additional solicitor General had assured the court that the status of the employees will not be altered. The writ petition is listed for next hearing on 30th September 2021. Before which the counter has to be filed by the Central Government. On the basis of the above assurance given in the High Court by the ASG, AIDEF has written a letter to the Government that the assurance given by the ASG, should be strictly adhered to.
On 16-09-2021 the writ petition filed by AIDEF against Essential Defence Services Act 2021 came up for admission before the Honorable Chief Justice D.N.patel of Delhi High Court. Senior Advocate Shri. Sanjai Parrik advanced arguments on behalf of AIDEF . At the hearing after listening to the arguments of our senior advocate the Honorable High Court of Delhi has issued notice to the Government returnable on 16-11-2021.
The AIDEF and all the other Trade Unions and associations of Defence Civilian Employees will continue their relentless Trade Union Action programme and also the legal battle against the unilateral decisions taken by the present Government against the 41 Ordnance Factories and its 76,000 Defence civilian employees.
