- (1.) These appeals filed by the Food Corporation of India (for short "the Corporation") and its functionaries against orders dated 4.4.2003 and 10.9.2003 passed by the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court in CC No. 51/2002 are part of the chain of litigation involving workers, who have not been paid their dues for years together.
(2.) In the first round of litigation, the Division Bench of the High Court directed the Corporation to pay to the workers salary at par with other casual employees. Civil Appeal No. 1237/1994 filed by the Corporation was dismissed by this Court on March 29, 2004. If the Corporation had implemented the order of the Division Bench, the grievance of the workers would have been partially remedied but, as is usually done by large number of agencies/instrumentalities of the State, the Corporation did not pay wages due to the workers in accordance with the Court's order leaving them with no option but to again seek intervention of the High Court. Writ Petition No. 1491/1997 filed by 59 workers was disposed of by the learned Single Judge of the High Court on 23.6.1998 by directing the Corporation and its functionaries to pay them wages of Class-IV staff latest within three months. The operative part of that order reads as under: "Under the circumstances of the case, the writ application is allowed. Let a writ in the nature of mandamus be issued directing the Food Corporation of India authorities including the District Manager, Bankura to pay wages of the writ petitioners including arrears at par with the wages of the Class-IV staff of the Food Corporation of India as expeditiously as possible and in any event not later than 3 months from date." 2. The Division Bench dismissed the appeal preferred by the Corporation and reduced the time fixed by the learned Single Judge from three months to two months. The appellants carried the matter to this Court and succeeded in persuading the Bench hearing the special leave petition to grant leave. However, they failed to cross the final hurdle, inasmuch as Civil Appeal Nos.6064-6065 of 1998 were dismissed on 28th September, 2000 with costs of Rs.10,000/-. Some of the observations made by the two Judges Bench, which are reflective of the mind-set of the functionaries of the Corporation in prosecuting litigation involving those who are at the lowest rung in the hierarchy of services, are extracted below: "Further, the High Court had given a finding that since some casual workers appointed directly by the appellant and some employed by the contractors are working in the same godown and on the same work there could not be any scope for making any difference and to deny equal pay for equal work. Proceeding further, it was stated that on the principles set out earlier with reference to the letter of the Labour Department, the wages will have to be paid regularly to the respondents at the same rate at which it was paid to the regular employees of the appellant doing identical work which has to be worked out on daily rate basis from March, 1989. This was the order that was affirmed by this Court and was not interfered with. It is difficult for us to comprehend on what basis the appellant can make any complaint now except to engage themselves in nit picking and being over ingenious in making submissions before the Court. The position is, therefore, clear to the effect that this appeal is misconceived and deserves to be dismissed with costs, quantified at Rs.10,000/-."
(3.) Even though the direction given by the learned Single Judge was unequivocal and the same was approved by the Division Bench and this Court, the Corporation and its functionaries did not implement the same necessitating initiation of the proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, which have culminated in the impugned orders.;