IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
( EXTRA Ordinary Civil WRIT Jurisdiction )
W.P.( CIVIL ) NO. 6052 OF 2012
IN THE MATTER OF :
1. Nairuthya Railway Employees Union ( NREU )
South Western Railway, Hubli, Karnataka ,
Reg. No. ALCD- 4/DRT/3/2008 -2009
Represented through its Legal advisor ........... Petitioner
2. G.Rajan
Legal Advisor , NREU
A-50 GF
Old Gupta Colony, New Delhi - 110090
VERSUS
1. Union of India , through ............Respondents
Ministry of Railways
Rail Bhavan
New Delhi - 110001
2. Chairman Railway Board,
Rail Bhavan, New Delhi.
3. Ministry of Finance,
Represented through its Secretary ,
North Block, New Delhi- 110001 .
INDEX
1. Listing Performa
2. Urgent Application
3. Notice of motions
4. List of Dates & Events
5. Memo of Parties
6. Civil Writ Petition under Article 226, of the Constitution of
India issuance of Appropriate writ by way of PIL
7. Affidavit in support of above Writ Petition
8. Application for direction under section 151 C.P.C
9. Affidavit in support of Application for Direction
10. Annexure-P/1: (Colly)
11. Annexure-P/2; (Colly)
12. Annexure-P/3
Synopsis and List of Dates
The petitioners representing lakhs of employees of Indian Railway through filing the present pro-bono petition for the Railway employees who are facing serious problems due to disbursement of Productivity Linked Bonus in Cash. The petitioners herein have submitted a representation to the General Manager,South Western Railway and to The Minister for Finance,Government of India dated 30-08-2001 and 23-09-2011 respectively demanding that the Productivity Linked Bonus must be disbursed through their salary accounts or bearer cheque. The employees are facing huge problem by receiving the small amount as cash they are forced to distribute the most part of the amount in different heads at the time receipt itself in effect they are not getting any balance in such payment. If the payment is channelized through the ordinary cause of disbursement it will be much helpful for them and the employees working in different shifts are also forced to loose their rest time due to the time spent to stay in long time queue for collecting the small amount.
The petitioners approaching This Hon'ble Court with a prayer to direct the respondents to consider Annexure P/1 representation and to take an appropriate decision without further delay.
All the remedies are available to the petitioners are already exhausted and there is no alternative remedy in the present case. It is appropriate to direct the respondents to consider the representation submitted by the petitioners.
17-08-2004 Wide letter No. D.O.No 2003/AC-II/21/13 a letter from the Railway Board is directed the South Western Railway to pay the salary through ECS/Bank/Cheque.
01-01-2005- Indian Railways started paying the salaries and allowances through Bank accounts or bearer cheque and still it is continuing.
14-02-2008 Petitioner No.2 has filed and application under Right to Information act seeking details about the mode of disbursement of salary and allowances to the Railway employees in South Western Railway Divisional office Bangalore.
24-03-2008 The petitioner No.2 has received a reply from the divisional office that there are 8077 employees are receiving their salaries through bank account in that division but none of them paid their bonus through bank.
07-10-2010 The Railway Board Deputy Director E (P&A) III issued a letter directing the General Managers and Chief Accounts Officers to pay the bonus amount through bank. Till date none of the railway divisions complied this direction.
30-08-2011 The petitioner No.2 has filed a representation to the General Manager,South Western Railway demanding the bonus payment through banks.
23-09-2011 The petitioner No.1 has filed a representation to the Minister for Finance, Government of India for demanding the payment of Bonus through Bank.
30-09-2011 The Railway Board Deputy Director E (P&A) III has sent a letter to all the General Managers to make the payment of Bonus before the pooja holidays in 2011 without mentioning to pay the same through banks.
18-09-2012 till date no reply has been given by the respondents to the representation submitted by the petitioners and also no relief as requested by the petitioners has been granted.
A WRIT PETITION UNDER ARTICLE-226,&227 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA PRAYING FOR ISSUANCE WRIT OF MANDAMUS OR ANY OTHER APPROPRIATE WRIT / DIRECTION OR ORDER TO DIRECT THE MINISTERY OF RAILWAYS TO CONSIDER ANNEXURE P/1 (COLLY) REPRESENTATION AND PASS APPROPRIATE ORDERS.
TO,
THE HON'BLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF DELHI HIGH COURT
& HIS COMPANION JUSTICES OF THE HONB'LE HIGH COURT OF DELHI
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE PETITIONER ABOVE NAMED.
MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH:
1. That the present Writ petition filed to protect the interest of the large number of non - Gazetted railway employees who's payment of Productivity Linked Bonus through Banks accounts has been denied even after there is a direction for the time . The right to life guaranteed under Article 14,19,& 21 of the Constitution of India is infringed by not considering the Annexure P/1 (Colly) representation submitted by the petitioners even after an year.
2. That by the act and deeds of the Respondent No.1,2 & 3 each and every Non-gazetted employees of the Indian Railway is affected directly. Large amount of public money is loosing because of the act of the Respondents i.e. the payment of Productivity Linked Bonus is paid through cash.
3. That it is submitted that by the orders/reliefs sought in the present Writ Petition the Respondents mentioned hereinabove particularly Respondents hereinabove affected and apart from them there is nobody who is likely to be affected.
4. That the petitioner No.1 is Nairuthya Railway Employees Union; a Trade Union (herein after called as NREU) Affiliated to the Center of Indian Trade Union, The Petitioner No.2 is a public spirite person and also the legal advisor of the Petitioner No.1,he has no direct or personal interest in the present matter and craves indulgence of this writ Petition.
5. The Respondent No.1 has started paying the salaries and allowances to their employees through Electronics Clearance Scheme (ECS) Bank Accounts/Bearer cheque since 01-01-2005.
6. That the Petitioner No.2 has filed a representation before The Gneral Manager of South Western Railways dated 30-08-2011 and the Petitioner No.2 has filed an another representation to The Honb'le Finance Minister of the Government of India and copy forwarded to the Minister of Railways also dated 23-09-2011 for the same purpose and no response is received till date. True copies of the said representations are annexed with this Writ Petition as
Annexure- P/1 (Colly)
7. That the brief facts given rise to the filling of the instant Writ Petition are detailed and pleaded as follows:
8. That the Ministry of Railways has started paying the salaries and allowances to their employees through their Bank accounts or Bearer cheque since 2005 onwards and at present 99% of the employees are drawing their salary through Bank accounts or through bearer cheque.
9. That the C&D category employees are receiving their Productivity Linked Bonus (herein after called as PLB) in annual or any other time specified by the railways accordingly. Even though the employees are receiving their salaries and other allowances through Bank accounts or through bearer cheque but till date none of the employees received their PLB through any of this kind than cash payment in hand. The petitioner had filed an application under RTI Act and obtained the reply dated 24-03-2008 specificallyabout the South Western Railways mentioned that none of the employees are paid their PLB in bank through even though 8077 employees are receiving their salaries through Bank and the same reply states that 9631 employees are received their PLB in cash. True copies of the application and the reply received are annexed herewith and marked as Annexure-P/2(Colly) .
10. That the Government of India and the Ministry of Railways are interested to pay the PLB through bank and the same ha sbeen mentioned in the letter sent by the Railway Board Deputy Director E(P&A) III on 07-10-2010 but the their procedures are delaying the process of implementation and payment made through cash is creating a lot of security issues and the ministry need to spend more more amount and human effort for distribution of the PLB in cash .
11. The payment of PLB through cashier involves avoidable exchequers loss in the form of honorarium to cashiers, payment of TA for the cashier and the RPFstaff who accompany them. This also involves the wastage of manpower of the ministry where now it is running short of employees . The payment through cashier occurs additional expence for providing security to the persons who are collecting the amount from the banks and distributing to the cashiers. If the expence and wastage of human effort and it is shame on Ministry that the Country is having most modern techniques in banking and information technology the Ministry of Railways are still paying their bonus to employees through cashier and creating uneasiness to the employees and also the Railways .
12. The petitioners are seeking relief against Respondent No.1,2&3 and their offices are at North Block New Delhi with in the territorial jurisdiction of this Hon'ble Court and hence the Hon'ble court has jurisdiction to entertain this petition.
13. The petitioner are filing the the present Writ Petition before this Hon'ble Court under the Article 226&227 of the constitution of India , inter-alia on the following amongst other grounds.
14. That the petitioners has not filed any other or similar Writ Petition seeking same relief before this Hon'ble Court or any other Court .
15. That the Petitioner has no other equally efficacious alternative remedy than to approach this Hon'ble Court by way of this petition.
16. That the present Writ Petition is being moved bonafied and in the interest of justice.
GROUNDS
A. Because the respondent No. 1, 2, & 3 has failed to consider the representation filed by the petitioners Annexure P/1(Colly) and failed to pass any order till date.
B. Because Respondent No.1, 2 , & 3 duty bound to examine the contents of the representation and to pass apropriate orders on its merit.
C. Because as per the Annexure P/3 The Railway Board Deputy Director E (P&A) III issued a letter directing the General managers and Chief Accounts Officers of pay the bonus amount through bank. Till date none of the Railway Division complied this direction.
D. Because if the repspondents following the present system disbursement of salary and allowances in Productivity Linked Bonus a huge financial loss can be avoided and actual working hours of several employees also can be saved.
E. Because the Respondents are not distributing the Productivity Linked Bonus through the present system of salary and other allowances to protect the illegal interests of some pressure groups.
F. Because no one has been objected the distribution of Productivity Linked Bonus till date and no loss could be in adopting such a system.
PRAYER
It is most respectfully prayed that this Hon'ble Court may kindly be please to issue a Writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate Writ, direction or order directing the Respondents to :-
Direct the Respondents to consider the representation submitted by the petitoners and pass appropriate orders.
OR , Issue a Writ , order or direction in the nature of mandamus to Respondent No. 1 , 2 ,& 3 to makes the bonus payment through Bank or bearer cheque in next payment of bonus .
OR, Such further order or orders , directions as this Hon'ble Court may be deemed fit and proper in the circumstances of the case.
AND FOR THIS ACT OF KINDNESS THE PETITIONERS AS IN DUTY BOUND SHALL EVER PRAY
