Chennai, Aug 11: The Madras High Court today reserved orders on a petition challenging the amended Tamil Nadu Essential Services Maintenance Act 2002 and the July 04 ordinance amending it. The orders were reserved by Justice K Govindarajan after hearing arguments on maintainability of the petition, filed by Tamil Nadu Subordinate Cooperative Officers' Association.

In its petition, the association contended that the ordinance itself was in violation of Article 311(2) of the Constitution as it took away the constitution service protection enjoyed by government employees. "If the impugned act and ordinance are allowed to be in force, the basic service rights of the employees and their fundamental rights of lawful association will be defeated," the association claimed.

The petitioner said the method of demonstrations through service associations was an accepted mode for many decades. The association prayed for a direction to declare Sections 2(a), 2(c)(i), 2(c)(ii) and 4 and 5 of the state Esma and the consequential July 04 ordinance as "unconstitutional and null and void."

Bureau Report