Gauhati HC Directs Personal Appearance of the Commissioner, Secretary of Finance Dpt.
Guwahati
The Division Bench of the Gauhati High Court comprising of the Chief Justice, Ajit Singh and Justice Suman Shyam by order dated 06.06.2016 passed in Contempt Case (C) No. 660/2015(filed by All Assam Statfed Karmachari Aikya Mancha & 17 Ors. on 09.10.2015) have directed the personal presence of the Commissioner and Secretary, Finance Department, Government of Assam and the Zonal Joint Registrar of Co-Operative Societies, Guwahati Zone and working as liquidator of Statfed before the Division Bench of the High Court on 16.06.2006.
Mr. Bhaskar Dev Konwar, Senior Advocate, who represented the petitioner-association states that it is unfortunate that the State Government inspite of a specific direction of the Court to release the house rent, medical and leave compensatory allowances to the employees of the Statfed, the Government is yet to comply it. Therefore the Court had no other option, but to direct for the personal appearance of the Officers.
By judgment and order dated 03.01.2014 passed in W.P.(C) No. 4355/2010, the Single Judge of the Gauhati High Court directed the authorities to release the house rent allowance, medical allowance and city compensatory allowance to the members of the petitioner-association within a period of 3 (three) months. The said judgment was upheld by the Division Bench on 06.05.2015 in W.A. No. 112/2015 which was again confirmed by the Supreme Court in favour of the petitioner-association.
Today when the matter was taken up, an affidavit of the liquidator was referred to wherein the amount payable to the employees of the Statfed towards the aforementioned allowance was quantified at Rs. 11,22,54,844/-. On 23rd May, 2016 the liquidator placed the requirement before the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Assam for onward submission to the Government. On 31.03.2016 the Registrar forwarded to the same for the concurrence of the Finance Department. The Finance Department, in their affidavit has stated that it has no objection to the release of 20% of the admissible dues to the Statfed employees including the said allowances in terms of the judgment and order dated 03.01.2014 subject to the condition that the liquidator shall complete the process for making an assessment of the assets of the Statefed and disposed them through auction sale.
Dr. B. Ahmed, Advocate represented the Co-Operation Department and Ms. A Verma , Advocate represented the Finance Department.
