Labour court to settle relief pleas pending for years

Twenty years after his son was murdered in a Delhi factory, 80-year-old Gorakhnath from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh is eagerly waiting for the settlement of his two-decade-old compensation petition, which will be decided by the AAP government’s labour court this week. Once the compensation plea against his deceased son’s employer is settled, Gorakhnath will be one of 1,027 petitioners whose pleas have been settled since October 15 in the national capital.

The settlement of about 85 per cent cases pending before labour courts between five and 25 years has been possible due to timely intervention of the Delhi high court and fast-track approach of the AAP government.

Tragedy struck Gorakhnath’s family when his 20-year-old son Ranjeet, a helper in a printing press, was found murdered inside its premises in Wazirpur Industrial area in July 1996. Ranjeet was told by his management to fill in for the night watchman, who was on a month’s leave. He was found murdered in a bathroom locked from outside while on night duty.

When Gorakhnath reached Delhi to perform his son’s last rites, he was shocked to know that the cremation had already taken place. He then moved the labour court, seeking compensation for his son, who was murdered on duty.

Ranjeet was getting a monthly salary of Rs 1,000, but his father petitioned the labour court that his son was entitled to a monthly salary of Rs 1,800 as per labour laws. He sought compensation of Rs 2.50 lakh from his son’s employer. The matter dragged on in the labour court for over two decades. After about 200-odd hearings, employees commissioner (compensation) S.K.S. Yadav finally ruled that he would decide the compensation plea this week.

If the ruling is in favour of Gorakhnath, he would get the compensation amount he had demanded, plus 50 per cent of the penalty with 9 per cent simple interest. The total compensation package could vary between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh — that too after battling it out in labour courts for two decades.

However, all this was possible because of direct intervention of the Delhi high court that ordered the city government to settle 1,192 cases pending for 5-25 years on a priority basis. Earlier, nine deputy commissioners had been hearing these pleas in nine districts, but the city government appointed five Danics officers as commissioners, employees compensation, to fast-track the hearings. The speedy process has finally helped to get 1,026 compensation cases settled till date. A senior bureaucrat said there are about 200 more cases, five-year-old and above, to be disposed of by October-end.