International Union Of Food Agr. vs. Union Of India Ministry Of Law And Justice Secretary

ITEM NO.301 COURT NO.1 SECTION PIL-W S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS CONMT.PET.(C) No. 16/2012 In W.P.(C) No. 365/2006 INTERNATIONAL UNION OF FOOD AGR. & ORS. Petitioner(s) VERSUS UNION OF INDIA & ORS. Respondent(s) (With IA No.33241/2018-PERMISSION TO FILE ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS ) Date : 11-12-2019 This petition was called on for hearing today. CORAM : HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE L. NAGESWARA RAO Counsel for the parties Mr. Colin Gonsalves, Sr. Adv. Ms. Olivia Bang, Adv. Ms. Jyoti Mendiratta, AOR Ms. Aditi Gupta, Adv. Ms. Anu Pradha Singh, Adv. Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Suhaan Mukerji, Adv. Ms. Astha Sharma, Adv. Ms. Kajal Dalal, Adv. Ms. Sansriti Pathak, Adv. Mr. Amit Verma, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Manchanda, Adv. Mr. Prastut Dalvi, Adv. M/S. PLR Chambers And Co., AOR Mr. G. Prakash, AOR Mr. Jishnu M.L., Adv. Mrs. Priyanka Prakash, Adv. Mrs. Beena Prakash, Adv. Mr. Vibha Datta Makhija, Sr. Adv. Mr. S.K. Singhania, Adv. Mr. Praveen Gaur, Adv. Ms. Aadya Mishra, Adv. Ms. Rashmi Malhotra, Adv. Ms. Priyanshi Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Anil Katiyar, AOR Mr. Narender Hooda, Sr. Adv. Ms. Sangeeta Mandal, Adv. Ms. Swati Sinha, Adv. Ms. Taruna A. Prasad, Adv. Ms. Sukanya Basu, Adv. Digitally signed by SANJAY KUMAR Date: 2019.12.12 16:55:24 IST Reason: Signature Not Verified

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Mr. Vikas Mahajan, AAG Mr. Joydip Roy, Adv. Mr. Vinod Sharma, AOR Mr. Anil Kumar, Adv. Mr. Siddharth, AOR Ms. Rashmi Malhotra, AOR Mrs. Anil Katiyar, AOR Mr. Aneesh Mittal, AOR Ms. Shreya Sharma, Adv. Mr. M. P. Vinod, AOR Mr. Nalin Kohli, AAG Ms. Nimisha Menon, Adv. Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, Adv. Mr. Rituraj Biswas, AOR Mr. Rituraj Choudhary, Adv. Ms. Sujata Bardhan, Adv. Mr. C.N. Sree Kumar, Sr. Adv. Mr. B. Ragunath, Adv. Mr. Vijay Kumar, AOR Mr. T. R. B. Sivakumar, AOR M/S. Mitter & Mitter Co., AOR Mr. N.M. Varghese, Adv. Mrs. Tessy Varghese, Adv. Mr. K. V. Mohan, AOR Mr. Anukul Raj, Adv. Mr. Nikita Raj, Adv. Mr. P.K. Aggarwal, Adv. Mr./Ms. Priscilla Ghazes, Adv. Mr. Kumar Dushyant Singh, AOR

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R

1. Aggrieved by the non-payment of dues to the plantation workers, the Petitioner filed Writ Petition (C) No. 365 of 2006. The writ petition was disposed of by an order dated 06.08.2010, by which the Central Government was directed to carry out their statutory duties, in terms of Sections 16-B, 16-C, 16-D and 16-E of the Tea Act, 1953 within a period of six months. As the direction issued by this Court was not complied with, the Petitioner filed the above contempt petition.

2. After hearing the learned counsel for the parties, a detailed order was passed on 04.04.2018 by this Court giving directions to the States of Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, to pay the dues of the retired workers. After obtaining the information about the dues payable to the workmen from the Union of India, the State of Assam was directed to make available Rs.99 Crores to the Assam Tea Corporation, which was directed to be disbursed to the workmen, after verification of their claims. Likewise, the States of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala were also directed to provide Rs.15 Crores, Rs.9.5 Crores and Rs.2.79 Crores respectively for the purpose of payment of the dues of the workers.

3. The status report filed on behalf of the Petitioner regarding compliance of the order dated 04.04.2018 shows that the directions issued by this Court have been partially implemented by the State Governments. The State of Assam disbursed Rs.76 Crores out of Rs.99 Crores which was directed to be deposited by this Court, vide order dated 04.04.2018. Similarly, the State of West Bengal had disbursed only Rs.12.18 Crores out of Rs.15 Crores which was directed to be paid and the State of Tamil Nadu had disbursed Rs.8 Crores out of Rs.9.5 Crores. The State of Kerala has not disbursed any amount as per the status report filed by the Petitioner.

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4. Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the State of West Bengal made some suggestions regarding the redressal of the grievances of the workers. Mr. Colin Gonsalves, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioner, Ms. Vibha Datta Makhija, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the Union of India and Mr. Narender Hooda, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the Tea Board have no objection to this Court accepting the suggestions made by Mr. Dwivedi.

5. We accept the suggestions made by Mr. Dwivedi as mentioned above with the following modification in paragraph No. 1 and paragraph No.9.

6. Paragraph No.1 shall be modified to state that Mr. Justice Amitava Roy, retired Judge of this Court, shall head the One-Member Committee instead of Justice (Retd.) Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta as suggested by the State of West Bengal. Paragraph No.9 shall stand modified to state that the additional costs in the process of disbursement of dues shall be borne by the State Governments instead of the Tea Board. Subject to the above modifications, the suggestions of the State of West Bengal are accepted. The workers are directed to approach the One-Member Committee for settlement of their claims. The connected records shall be made available to the One Member Committee by the State Government, Tea Board and the Tea Gardens, as and when required. As per the suggestions made on behalf of the State of West Bengal, each Tea garden shall deposit an amount of Rs.2 Crores. All the Tea gardens are directed to deposit the said amount. In case any tea garden has paid all the dues of the workmen, they may approach the One-Member Committee for

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refund of the amount deposited.

7. The suggestions made by the State of West Bengal shall be furnished to the Advocates-On-Record for the States of Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. They may come forward with proposals for disbursement of the dues of the workmen of the tea gardens. The process of disbursement of the dues to the workmen may be expedited by the One-Member Committee as the payments have been pending for a very long period of time.

8. List the matter in February, 2020.

(SANJAY KUMAR-II) (PRADEEP KUMAR) COURT MASTER (SH) BRANCH OFFICER