Taking serious note of the ongoing strike by the Uttar Pradesh electricity department employees despite a court order, the Allahabad High Court on Friday began contempt proceedings against the union leaders and issued a warrant asking them to appear before it on Monday. Hearing a PIL, a division bench comprising Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Vinod Diwaker directed that considering the urgency of the matter, the bailable warrants are issued against the office bearers of the Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukt Sangarsh Samiti through its organizer Shailendra Dubey and several others by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Lucknow requiring their presence before the court at 10 am on March 20.
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The electricity department employees went on a three-day strike from Thursday night. Meanwhile, the court also directed the state authorities concerned to ensure that appropriate action as may be permissible in law be taken against the erring officials/employees so as to ensure compliance with the previous orders passed by this court on December 6, 2022, directing that there will be no disruption of power supply in the state. Fixing March 20, as the next date, the court directed the state government to report compliance with the action taken in the matter by then.
"An affidavit of the Additional Chief Secretary of the Department concerned would be placed on record by then,” the court added. Passing the above directives, the court observed, “From what has been placed before us, a serious situation is shown to have arisen which requires immediate attention. Even if there is a substance in the demand raised by the workers, the entire state cannot be put under severe constraints by jeopardizing overwhelming public interest.
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“Such act of workers violates the direction of this court for not disrupting power supply. Even national interest is compromised on account of the reduction in the generation of power in different power-generating units of the state. Thus, prima facie, it is disobedience of this court's order dated December 6, 2022,” the court observed.
