People's Democracy

THE famous Hutatma Chowk at Flora Fountain in South Mumbai has been the venue for innumerable dharnas and demonstrations by workers and others sections of the people. But the protest demonstration which was staged on Thursday, September 20, and witnessed by thousands of people present there, was a different one, as the people in this demonstration were asking why Supreme Court is doing injustice to weaker sections. This was a demonstration by about 3,000 contract workers who came there from far-off places in different directions, for the purpose. They came in large numbers, breaking the ban under section 144 and shouting slogans against the Supreme Court’s August 30, 2001 judgement in the Air India case on contract labourers. Holding their banners and placards high and with newspaper cuttings of this Supreme Court judgement in their hands, the workers asked in full-throated voices why the Supreme Court often comes to the rescue of big employers and multinationals and forgets the plight of the exploited sections like contract labourers.

The procession to and demonstration at the Flora Fountain was organised under the banner of the Thekkedari Padhath Virodhi Manch. This Manch comprises several unions affiliated to different organisations. The police had made elaborate arrangements to block the convergence of the protesting processionists at the venue of demonstrations at the Hutatma Chowk. But it was of no consequences for the angry workers who were furious, and came denouncing the August 30 Supreme Court judgement in the civil appeal filed by the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and others. It is through its judgement in this appeal case that the Supreme Court has now reversed its earlier judgement in the Air India case. By 5.00 in the evening, the Hutatma Chowk complex was full with the workers carrying red flags.

It may be noted here that it was the authorities under the central government who had moved the Supreme Court against a division bench of the Bombay High Court in the Air India case. The judgement, delivered in 1992, held that the contract workers in the airports were direct employees of the Airport Authority of India. However, despite severe attacks and criticism against the Bombay High Court decision, the three-member division bench of the Supreme Court had, by its 101-page long unanimous judgement, upheld the High Court decision in 1996.

But the employers lobby worked hard and pressed into service all the resources at their command, including various government agencies and public sector industrial establishments’ authorities, to get the division bench decision referred to a five-member constitution bench of the Supreme Court. It was this five-member constitution bench which, on August 30 this year, reversed the decision of the Bombay High Court’s division bench and the Supreme Court’s earlier verdict concerning the contract workers. As a result, not only the workers in the airports but a cast majority of the entire workforce in the country will have no right to be absorbed as permanent workers and no more protection will be available to them. Slavery of the workers in the industrial sector will thus become the order of the day as a result of this constitution bench decision.

Addressing the workers, K L Bajaj, Maharashtra state general secretary of the Thekkedhari Padhath Virodhi Manch, and its joint convenor Dr Vivek Monteiro condemned the judgement. They demanded that the Vajpayee government must move a bill in the coming session of parliament to remove the ambiguity created by the Supreme Court judgement and restore the original legal position of the contract workers.

Immediately after the leaders ended their brief speeches, the workers started burning the copies of the Supreme Court judgement. Despite the rain, the demonstration went on for full one hour. The police on guard then started arresting the demonstrators and taking them in the waiting vans to the nearby Ramabhai Ambedkar police station at Crawford market in the Fort area.

Prominent amongst those who were arrested were Vasant Gupta (HMS), Dada Samant (Kamgar Aghadi), K L Bajaj, Dr Vivek Monteiro and P R Krishnan (CITU), Sukumar Damble and A D Golandaz (AITUC), M A Patil and Milind Ranade (Sarva Sramik Sangh) Jaywant Chavan (Shramik Sanghatana), Ms Deepti Gopinath (Indian Airport Employees Union), Sanjay Singhvi (TUCI), S Abhyankar (Hindustan Lever Employees Union), Vidhate (INTUC), Uday Bhat (Suraksha Kamgar Aghadi), Ms Sunder Novalkar (United Labour Union), P M Vartak (Mumbai Shramik Sangh), N Vasudevan (Trade Union Solidarity Committee) and Ravi Joshi (IFTU).