Kolkata-based driver waits 22 years for ‘right’ court

Tussle over jurisdiction keeps plea against his dismissal in limbo

While cases often take decades to reach the finishing line, for Pradip Kumar Ganguly it has taken 22 years to even get to the starting block.

It has taken over two decades to decide which court should hear his case in the first place.

Mr. Ganguly, formerly a driver with Kolkata-based Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd, had challenged his employer's decision to dismiss him from service in 1994.

But the case, before it could start, got caught up in a technical problem. The company claimed it was a central government organisation and challenged the West Bengal government's order to refer Ganguly's case to the State Government Industrial Tribunal for adjudication. The case stood frozen in time and the company approached the Supreme Court.

Arguing for Mr. Ganguly before a Bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, advocate Dushyant Parashar submitted that his client was at the end of his tether and did not mind whether it was the Central or State Industrial Tribunal which would hear his case, as long as it was heard.

Mr. Parashar reminded the apex court that his client has been waiting for a hearing for the past 22 years.

“About 22 years have gone by during which the matter has travelled from one court to another on the question whether the company is a central government organisation, and therefore, the appropriate government to refer the dispute to the industrial tribunal/forum would be the Central government and not the State government,” Justice Gogoi recorded in the apex court order.

The court order showed that the West Bengal government had referred the case to State Industrial Tribunal for expedient hearing and the case was to be completed within three months.

On its part, the company continued to insist in the Supreme Court that it was a central organisation and the case should be heard in a central industrial tribunal.

Justice Gogoi noted that this litigation on the issue of whether a Central or State tribunal has gone on for the last two decades, and as a result, Mr. Ganguly's case is “yet to see the light of the day”.

However, taking into consideration the fact that Mr. Ganguly had no objection to whatsoever tribunal tried his case, the Bench directed the matter to be heard by the Central Government Industrial Tribunal in Kolkata. The apex court asked the tribunal to wrap up the case in three months.

The apex court also ordered the company to pay Mr. Ganguly ₹2 lakh to cover litigation expenses incurred in the past two decades while waiting for the trial to begin.