High Court Bench dismisses petitions on payment of gratuity
Staff Reporter
To staff of Sankara Narayanaswamy Devasthanam
“No prima facie case in favour of Devasthanam”
Court cannot relax preconditions, says Judge
MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has dismissed a batch of writ petitions filed by the Sankara Narayanaswamy Devasthanam at Sankarankoil in Tirunelveli district pertaining to a dispute over its obligation to pay gratuity to its employees.
Justice K. Chandru refused to waive the statutory requirement of depositing the gratuity amount while filing an appeal before the Joint Commissioner of Labour against an order passed by the Assistant Commissioner of Labour in favour of the employees under the Payment of Gratuity Act.
The Judge said that it was not within the realm of the court to relax such preconditions.
Even assuming that the court can exercise its discretionary powers in such matters, it could not be done so in the present case because there was no prima facie case in favour of the Devasthanam, he added.
He pointed out that Section 1(3) (b) of the Gratuity Act states that it would apply to every shop or establishment within the meaning of any law in force.
“Therefore, the claim of the Devasthanam employees cannot be brushed aside and the appellate authority will have to go into the question whether the temple management running various lodges and wedding halls besides letting out shops will be covered by the term ‘establishment’ under any law in force for the time being.”
The Assistant Commissioner on May 17, 2004 had held that the Devasthanam was bound to pay gratuity as its activities would squarely fall under the definition of establishment under the Industrial Disputes Act.
Subsequently, the Joint Commissioner refused to admit an appeal filed by the Devasthanam without depositing the gratuity amount computed by his sub-ordinate.
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