On 29 June a bench consisting of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma directed the Chief Minister to call for an emergent meeting of the cabinet for discussing and resolving the financial crisis which is being faced by the Uttarakhand Transport Corporation. The court further noted that due to the corporation's financial crisis the employees of the corporation have not been paid the arrears of salary from Feb till June of 2021. Considering this the court asked that the crisis be resolved on an urgent basis.
Facts of the case:
The present writ petition was filed on behalf of the employees of the Uttarakhand Transportation Corporation as to the non payment of their salary. It was stated that due to the financial crisis of the corporation the employees of the Corporation have not been paid the arrears of their salary from February, 2021 till June, 2021.
Arguments on behalf of the respondent:
The respondent argued on the following grounds against the petition:
1. Mr. Om Prakash informed that the Hon’ble the Chief Minister has directed that the proposal for revival and resurrection of the Corporation should be placed in the next Cabinet meeting and that's why the matter has been put on halt.
2. It was submitted that immediately the corporation requires Rs. 124 crores in order to meet out its financial liabilities towards its employees for when it needs to make some sale of its properties.
3. It was also contended that the loss has been suffered due to no fault of the Corporation, but due to the pandemic, which struck the nation from March, 2020 onwards.
4. It was further submitted that Mr. Abhishek Rohila informs this Court that although the Government has promised to release Rs. 23 crores for “the hill loss” suffered by the corporation, the said amount is yet to be received by the Corporation.
Observation and order of the court:
The following observation has been made by the hon'ble bench of the court:
- A critical analysis of the proposal placed by the Corporation clearly reveals that it is an incomplete proposal as it claimed to require 124 crore to be able to meet out its liability of paying the salary till the month of June, 2021. However, there is no proposal for the expenditure that the Corporation would incur from July, 2021 till December, 2021.
- This Court had asked Mr. Om Prakash to look into the issue as to why the said amount has not been released to the Corporation so far?
- Considering that there were some of the lacunae that exist in the proposal submitted by Mr. Abhishek Rohila, he was directed to submit a complete proposal to the State Government so that the said proposal can be placed before the Cabinet in its next meeting.
- Thereafter, the Court directed that the amount of Rs. 23 crores, against “the hill loss” suffered by the Corporation, should be transferred immediately to the Corporation, so that the Corporation can pay the arrears of salary for the months of February and March, 2021 to its employees.
In the light of the above the court urged the Chief Minister to call for an emergent meeting of the cabinet for discussing and resolving the financial crisis which is being faced by the Uttarakhand Transport Corporation.
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