Government staff have no fundamental right to strike: Madras High Court
The strike as a weapon is misused by the employees and the same results in chaos and total maladministration.
Madurai: Reiterating that the government employees have no fundamental right to strike, the Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Thursday issued an injunction restraining the government employees associations from restoring to indefinite strike for redressal of their grievances.
“The strike as a weapon is misused by the employees and the same results in chaos and total maladministration. The strike would affect not only the administration but the entire system,” observed Justice K K Sasidharan.
A division bench comprising Justices Sasidharan and G.R. Swaminathan passed this order on a petition filed by an advocate T. Sekaran from Madurai who sought to issue direction to prohibit the indefinite strike announced by Joint Action Committee of Tamil Nadu Teachers Organisations— Government Employees Organisations (Jactto-Geo) in the state.
The special government prosecutor (SGP) informed the court that even after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami held talks with the associations to arrive at an amicable settlement on September 6, certain recognised and un-recognised associations of the State Government employees have commenced indefinite strike from today.
The SGP said that the government also have made it clear time and again through letter communication to the employees that they were not entitled to adopt the method of indefinite strike for meeting their demands as it was prohibited under the Rule 22 of Tamil Nadu Government Servant Conduct Rules, 1973.
Strike does more harm than rendering justice
Recording this submission, Justice Sasidharan said that the Supreme Court in T K Rangarajan's case had made it very clear that the government employees cannot claim that they could take society to ransom by going on strike.The weapon of strike does more harm than rendering justice to the cause.
And the strike by teachers participating in the strike would affect the entire education system, said Justice Sasidharan.The court advised the employees to resort to the machinery provided under different statutory provisions for redressal of their grievances instead of going on strike.