Chennai, July 08: Tamil Nadu Advocate General N R Chandran today found himself in a tight spot when the Madras High Court posed probing questions about interpretation of the state government's July 4 ordinance amending ESMA to provide for summary and mass dismissal of its striking employees. During arguments on a batch of petitions challenging the the amendment and subsequent actions, a division bench pointed out that while the ordinance warned of stringent action against those not joining duty immediately, employees turning up for duty were not allowed to enter their places of work.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice B Subhashan Reddy and Justice K Govindarajan, was intervening during a reply by the AG to arguments by counsels for the petitioners.
To a query by Justice Reddy as to whether the ordinance could be seen to mean that government had condoned the action (strike) by employees, AG said "that is not the intention".
On the other hand, the ordinance was given retrospective effect so that any strike by the employees after April 23 last, the day that ESMA became effective in the state, attracted the punishment under the amendment.
The Chief Justice said the ordinance conveyed the message that striking employees were called upon to report at once for duty. Since the next two days were holidays it meant they were expected to report on July 7, he said and asked the AG for an explanation.
Bureau Report