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Govt. staff cannot go on strike even for a just cause: SC

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI Aug. 6. Government employees have no "fundamental, legal, moral or equitable right" to go on strike even for a just cause, the Supreme Court ruled today.

Disposing of a batch of six petitions challenging the dismissal from service of 1.7 lakh Tamil Nadu Government employees, a Bench, comprising Justice M.B. Shah and Justice A.R. Lakshmanan, observed that "apart from statutory rights, Government employees cannot claim that they can take society at ransom by going on strike".

The Bench made it clear that even if there was injustice to some extent, in a democratic welfare state, they had to resort to the machinery provided under different statutory provisions for redress of their grievances. "Strike as a weapon is mostly misused which results in chaos and total maladministration. Strike affects society as a whole and particularly when two lakh employees go on strike en masse, the entire administration comes to a grinding halt," the Bench noted.

It recalled the Supreme Court's decision in the All-India Bank Employees' Association case in 1962 in which it was held that trade unions had no guaranteed right to an effective collective bargaining or to strike, either as part of collective bargaining or otherwise.

`More harm than justice'

The judges also referred to the lawyers' agitation case, and said that "for just or unjust cause, strike cannot be justified in the present-day situation". "Take strike in any field, it can be easily realised that the weapon does more harm than any justice. Sufferer is the society — public at large."

The Bench also reiterated the court's earlier observation that the fundamental rights of the people as a whole could not be subservient to the claim of the fundamental right of an individual or only a section of the people.

"In the case of strike by a teacher, (the) entire educational system suffers; many students are prevented from appearing in their examinations which ultimately affect their whole career. In case of strike by doctors, innocent patients suffer, if transport employees go on strike, the entire movement of society comes to a standstill and business is adversely affected".

On occasions, public properties were destroyed or damaged and this created bitterness among the public against those who were on strike, they said.

The Bench agreed with the submission of the senior counsel for Tamil Nadu, K.K. Venugopal, that approximately 90 per cent of the amount collected from direct tax was spent on the salary of about 12 lakh Government employees.

And in a society where there was large-scale unemployment and a number of qualified persons were eagerly waiting for employment in Government departments or in public sector undertakings, strikes could not be justified on any equitable ground.

In the prevailing situation, the judges said apart from being conscious of rights, "we have to be fully aware of our duties, responsibilities and effective methods for discharging the same. For redressing their grievances, instead of going on strike, if employees do some more work honestly, diligently and efficiently, such gesture would not only be appreciated by the authority but also by people at large".

The court agreed that misconduct by the Government employees was required to be dealt with in accordance with the law. However, on occasions, even if the employees were not prepared to agree with what was contended by some leaders who encouraged the strikes, they were forced to go on strikes for reasons beyond their control.

State Govt. lauded

Taking this into consideration, the judges suggested that the dismissed employees be taken back and the State Government had promptly agreed to reinstate all but 6,072 employees of the 1,70,241 who had gone on strike. For this, the Bench lauded the Government.

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