The Madras High Court Bench here has ruled that minority educational institutions are not exempt from implementing labour laws and are bound to follow them.
The ruling was given by Justice K Chandru while allowing a writ petition filed by the management of Manal Madha Higher Secondary school in Tuticorin district against the award passed by the Tirunelveli labour court, directing the school to reinstate an employee who had been denied work since 1992. Justice Chandru also advised the labour court, which gave its direction in 2004, not to give "ambiguous orders" without giving reasons and discussing merits before passing an order in favour or against a litigant.
Even if a party failed to appear before the court, it was bound to give reasons, he said. The award was passed following an industrial dispute raised by an attender of the school who was denied work from Aug 13, 1992.
The labour court ordered to reinstate the attender without discussing the merits of the case. The school submitted that the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA) would not apply to the minority educational institutions, and educational institutions would not come under the term "Industry". Rejecting the school's argument on both grounds, Justice Chandru said even minority institutes are bound to implement labour laws.
The Amendment to the term "Industry" under section 2(j) of the IDA, excluding the educational institutions from the purview of legislation was yet to be notified by the Centre, he said.
The judge remitted the matter back to the labour court for considering afresh on conditions that school management should pay arrears of subsistence allowance to the employee at the rate of Rs 1,310 per month from Jul 2010, and continue to pay the allowance for the next six months.
"If the said payment is not done within four weeks and a cost memo not filed before the labour court, the industrial dispute award passed on July 2 would stand revived without reference to this court," he said.
