The Madras High Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on Wednesday a public interest litigation petition to declare as illegal the strike call given by four trade unions, in the State transport corporations, pressing various demands including wage revision, filling of vacancies and scrapping of new pension scheme.
Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy accepted a request made by Senior Counsel P.R. Raman for an early hearing of the PIL petition filed by a 25-year-old pharmacology student from Chennai and directed the Registry to list the case for hearing on Wednesday.
In his affidavit, the petitioner S. Paul Kithiyon of Sholinganallur said, Anna Thozhil Sanga Peravai, Centre of Indian Trade Union, All India Trade Union Congress and DMDK Trade Union had given the strike call just before the Pongal festival and subjected the regular bus commuters to immense hardship.
Claiming that most of the demands of the trade unions had been pending for last eight years, the petitioner said, the sudden call for strike from Tuesday had curtailed free movement of citizens who were being forced to shell out lot of money for other modes of travel such as auto rickshaws.
The petitioner said, the unions ought to have resolved the issue through talks or by invoking the mechanisms available under the Industrial Disputes Act, instead of resorting to strike. He contended that the Supreme Court had upheld Kerala High Court’s 1997 judgement declaring bandh/strike as illegal.
He also cited a 1998 Supreme Court verdict wherein it was held that the fundamental rights of people as a whole could not be made subservient to the fundamental rights of an individual or a section of people. The litigant said, the State government was duty bound to curtail such illegal strikes.
