SCI non-payment of dues: HC relief for staffer

An employee of the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), who hauled the company to court over non-payment of dues, got relief from the Bombay High Court recently. The HC has set aside an order passed by a magistrate court and directed the lower court to consider 54-year-old Raja Basu's complaint afresh and deal with the matter in accordance with the law.

The complainant had filed a private complaint against officials of SCI for not releasing his provident fund and gratuity dues, after compelling him to take compulsory retirement.

The complaint
On May 11, 2017, Basu, an assistant general manager at SCI, was asked to take compulsory retirement by the company. This was apparently because of his being a 'whistle blower' and for bringing out wrongdoings within the company. He left the company the same day, but was deprived of his full and final settlement, including provident fund and gratuity, that was deducted during his service tenure and was with the company's in-house trust. Even after writing numerous letters to the company, they did not pay heed to his requests, his lawyer, advocate Rajeshwar Panchal said.

No action by police
Fed up with SCI ignoring his requests, on September 23, 2017, Basu filed a written complaint with Marine Drive police station, asking the police to take necessary action against the officials concerned at SCI for misappropriating his retirement dues of Rs 40 lakh.

In his complaint, Basu also stated that due to non-availability of funds, his son had to drop the idea of joining a university abroad. The police claimed that as the matter was not a criminal offence, they could not register a FIR and stated that this was a civil case.

Accordingly, Basu's lawyer filed a private complaint before the Esplanade court under section 156 of the CrPC on March 27, 2018, after the local Zone 1 DCP, too, failed to take action on his complaint.

The lower court order
According to Panchal, the lower court heard the matter on the same day (March 27, 2018) and immediately passed an order without even hearing the plea, directing Basu to get permission of competent authorities to prosecute the accused officials at SCI and also to take action against the senior police inspector of Marine Drive police station and DCP Zone 1 for not taking cognizance of his complaint.

Panchal said, "As the four accused in the complaint included two senior SCI officials and two senior police officers, all being public servants, no action could be taken against them without the required go-ahead from the government. This was absurd as such a permission is only required when offences are committed by public servants in the course of discharge of their official duties and not otherwise. The court even gave a time period of nine months, within which the complainant had to get the permissions and adjourned the matter."

Order challenged in HC
Advocate Panchal said, "We moved the high court against this very order and Justice Prakash Naik pointed out serious flaws in the order passed by the lower court and directed it to take the complaint afresh. The matter is slated for hearing on September 18."

Justice Naik's order dated August 14 (copy with this paper) stated, "It is submitted that the learned magistrate had committed an error in passing the order directing the petitioner to obtain permissions within nine months. The order exhibits total non-application of mind on the part of the trial court. The time limit as stipulated in the order was not warranted. Apart from that, for the nature of offences alleged in the complaint, permissions were not necessary."

Advocate Panchal said, "This order makes it clear that lower courts cannot blindly pass orders directing complainants to get permissions without recording the reasoning, which is required in the case. This is a victory for a person who single-handedly decided to fight the system."

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