Cop security refused for factory

 

Chennai: Observing that any justifiable form of labour agitation to achieve justifiable demands cannot be thwarted or crushed using police force under the garb of enforcing the rule of law, the Madras High Court refused to order police protection to a factory in Oragadam.

 

Justice P. Devadass dismissed a petition filed by CNF Automotive India Private Ltd in Oragadam, seeking police protection to the factory premises, officials and employees. The company sought protection stating that it was a minimum relief and it could avoid law and order problem, as and when it arises. The government advocate, however, informed the court that there was no threat of law and order problem from the employees. The employees were trying to form a union. As workers were on ‘go-slow’ mode, the management had been trying to defeat them by using the police, he added.

 

Observing that police protection could not be ordered in anticipation of trouble from employees who were about to form a trade union, the judge said such orders would lead to many unpleasant consequences and complications. “In labour jurisprudence, ‘collective bargaining’ has become a recognised form of protest. It is an accepted form of protest in the struggle between capital and labour,” the judge added.

 

The judge said police protection can be ordered only if there were concrete details that the intervention of police was necessary to maintain law and order. 

In view of the Oragadam police submission that there was no tense situation endangering maintenance of law and order in and around the factory premises, involving the police could become counter-productive, the judge added.