Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Dec 5: High Court directed the Government to release the unpaid salary to the retired employees of Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Consumer Federation Limited (CONFED) after examining the exact period of work.
Justice Sanjay Dhar disposed of the plea of retired CONFED employees seeking release of arrears of salary with effect from the year 1998 to 2007. The court directed respondent-authorities to determine the exact period for which salary of these retired employees has remained unpaid due to winding up of the CONFED.
“After ascertaining the date upto which they have received salary as employees of the CONFED, the respondents shall disburse the arrears of salary upto the date they were absorbed in different posts borne on the cadre of the Government”, the Court directed.
This exercise, the Court directed, shall be undertaken and completed by the authorities within a period of three months from the date a certified copy of this order is served upon them. The facts emanating from the pleadings of the case was that the aggrieved petitioners were ex-employees of the (CONFED) which was wound up in the year 1999 in terms of Cabinet decision dated 15.07.1999. The said decision provided for winding up of the CONFED and it was also stipulated that the employees would be suitably adjusted.
Thereafter the petitioners were absorbed in the Labour Department after the winding up of CONFED in the year 1999. The only issue before the Court was as to whether they are entitled to wages and other service benefits for the period intervening between winding up of the CONFED and their absorption in the Government Department.
This aspect of the matter has been the subject matter of litigation of similarly situated employees before this Court and the judgment passed by the Writ Court has been upheld by the Division Bench of this Court and the Special Leave Petition against the said judgment has been dismissed by the Supreme Court.
The Court has clarified that the writ petitioners therein are entitled to arrears of salary which are admissible to them upon their placement in the grade in which they were working in the CONFED with effect from December, 1998 to October, 2007. The Supreme Court, while deciding the Special Leave Petition against the said order, not only upheld the same but it also monitored the payment of arrears of salary to the petitioners therein.
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