Himachal HC vows to punish striking road transport employees

Himachal High Court today came down heavily on striking Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) for willfully defying its orders, saying they should "bear the consequences of their action" failing which the court orders would be "conveniently" ignored or flouted by all.
The court refused to accept "oral apology" tendered by the employee leaders through their counsel.
A division bench of High Court consisting of Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Sandeep Sharma passed the orders on a petition filed by the government that the HRTC employees went on strike despite its directive on June 13 and 14 not to do so.

"Breach on the part of the respondents is willful and blatant which was observed even in the order passed by this court yesterday," the bench said.
"It is clear that the respondents, who have absolutely no regard for the orders of the court must be made to bear the consequences of their action, otherwise all the parties would conveniently ignore or flout the orders of the Courts," the bench said.
"Since all the striking employees despite the directions of the court have not joined back on duty by calling off the strike, the apology at this stage cannot be accepted.

"Apology is an act of contrition and unless it is offered in good grace, the apology is shorn of penitence and hence it is liable to be rejected," it observed.

The court further said that "If the apology is offered at the time when the contemnor finds that the court is going to impose punishment it ceases to be an apology and becomes an act of a cringing coward."
It said "the apology is not a weapon of defence to purge the guilty of their offence nor is it intended to operate as universal panacea, but it is intended to be evidence of real contriteness."

(Reopen LGD13)
The court said those employees who do not report back to duty shall be placed under suspension.
"If any person or persons are found stopping the other employees from joining back to their duties or otherwise disrupting the smooth functioning of HRTC or creating any hindrance, the management of the HRTC shall be free to report such incident(s) to the police and needless to say, the necessary follow up action in accordance with law shall be taken and if need be and the erring employees can also be arrested," the bench ruled.
The bench made it clear that the order passed by it will in no manner prevent the management of HRTC from initiating or resorting to any other action against the erring employees.

Transport Minister G.S.Bali said the employee leaders who instigated or, misguided or intimidated the employees to go on strike would face stringent action as per the service rules.
"The matter is pending in the court and we will take appropriate action after the matter was disposed off," he said.
Bali outrightly rejected the demand of the JCC to convert the HRTC into Roadways and said that all the employees had joined the HRTC and as such the demand is untenable.
He said the HRTC had accepted most of the demands of the employees and some demands were being negotiated but the employees chose to go on strike disrupt the public transport system, causing inconvenience and hardship to commuters.

The HRTC employees joined duties this morning and called off the strike after the government fileda contempt petition in the court against the JCC for willful defiance of the orders passed by High Court on June 14 and 15.
Earlier, the JCC leaders had walked out from the talks with Principal Secretary (Transport) and even refused to accept the copy of the orders passed by the Court.
However, the tough stand taken by the government and HC taking cognizance of defiance of its orders, the HRTC employees returned to work even though there were no fresh talks today.