STRIKE ILLEGAL, SAYS HIGH COURT

LUCKNOW : The Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court on Thursday banned the Uttar Pradesh government employees’ strike, terming it ‘illegal’. The employees, including teachers, were on strike since Wednesday demanding restoration of their old pension scheme. The court directed the state government to take disciplinary action against the striking employees, make videos of the agitations/ dharnas by the employees and file them along with its report in court. It directed the government to depute senior officers in departments to ensure presence of employees in offices and develop a special mechanism under a senior officer for redressal of the employees’ grievances in respect to their pension issue, the petitioner’s counsel said.

The division bench of justice Devendra Kumar Arora and justice Ajay Bhanot passed the order on a writ petition by a local lawyer Rajeev Mishra seeking directions for prohibiting the strike in the interest of the common public and specially students, who are currently appearing in the UP Board examinations.

The petitioner’s counsel, Suryamani Singh Raikwar, along with Anurag Shukla submitted that under the concerned employees’ service rules, they can’t go on strike. Referring rulings in this regard, he urged that strict action be taken by the state government against the striking employees.

The court sought the state government’s response on the petition within a month. On behalf of the government, advocate general (AG) Raghvendra Singh, along with chief standing counsel Shree Prakash Singh, informed the court that about 10 per cent employees, including some teachers, were on strike. MANOJ KUMAR SINGH