Bombay High Court pulls up MSRTC workers' union for going ahead with strike despite court order

The Bombay High Court rapped a union of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation MSRTC workers for going ahead with its strike despite the courts order restraining it from doing soA vacation bench of Justices SJ Kathawalla and S P Tavade directed the unions leader Ajaykumar Gujjar to remain personally present in the court on November 5 and explain why action should not be initiated against him for willfully disobeying the courts orders The High Court had on November 3 restrained workers unions from going ahead with the strikeIn the order passed on the MSRTCs petition the court had observed Keeping in mind the immense hardship and inconvenience that will be caused to the members of the public who have fixed their travel plans through MSRTC buses during the festive days we direct the Respondents ie all the employees of the MSRTC to refrain from proceeding with the proposed rallystrikestoppage of work from midnight of November 3 andor thereafter until further ordersOn Thursday the bench was informed by the state transport body that despite the courts order Maharashtra Rajya Kanishth Vetanshreni ST Karmachari Sanghatana the union led by Gujjar had gone ahead with the strikeThe court then directed the said union to call off the strike immediately and posted the matter for further hearing on Friday Ajaykumar Gujjar is also directed to remain present before this Court on November 5 at 230 pm along with his affidavit failing which the Court shall be constrained to pass necessary orders to ensure his presence before this Court including issuing a warrant of arrest against him the bench saidOn October 29 on a plea by the MSRTC the industrial court had restrained the Maharashtra State Transport Kamgar Sanghatana and 26 others employees unions of the MSRTC from proceeding with the illegal strike until further orders The industrial court had also issued notices to the respondents and kept the matter for further hearing on November 15Pending this the workers union sent the notice to the MSRTC on Wednesday that they would be going ahead with their strike from midnight of Wednesday and Thursday unless the transport body gives them a written assurance that its staffers will be treated as employees of the state government The transport body claimed that the unions move was illegal and was an attempt to blackmail the MSRTC which is required to run buses to enable citizens to reach different destinations during the festive seasonAlso Read CRZmangroves HC permits construction of passenger jetties in Palghar and ThaneAs there wasnt sufficient time to approach the industrial court whose order was being breached the MSRTC had moved the High Court All the other workers unions called off the strike except the one led by GujjarThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever