Case Law Details
New Victoria Mills & Ors. Vs Shrikant Arya (Supreme Court of India)
In this resignation had already been accepted on 28.05.2003 before the respondent endeavoured to withdraw the same on 01.06.2003. It has, thus, rightly been contended by the appellants that the mere delay in relieving the respondent from duties would not impact the acceptance of his resignation.
FULL TEXT OF THE SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT
1. National Textile Corporation Limited (for short ‘NTC’), is a public sector undertaking constituted and registered under the Companies Act, 1956. Appellant No.2 before us is the National Textile Corporation (Uttar Pradesh) Limited, Kanpur, a subsidiary of appellant No. 3 that has set up several industrial establishments in the State of Uttar Pradesh. M/s. New Victoria Mills, appellant No.1, is one such establishment set up by appellant No.2 in Kanpur. Respondent was working as a Supervisor (Maintenance) in appellant No.1 since 1991, having been so appointed on transfer from M/s. Atherton Mills, another industrial unit set up by appellant No.2.
2. The textile industry went through difficult times at the turn of the century and accordingly, endeavours were made to examine the feasibility of the continued existence of different textile mills. A question mark over the existence of these mills in turn had ramifications for the persons who were employed with these mills. In order to safeguard the interests of these employees, a Modified Voluntary Retirement Scheme (for short ‘MVRS/Scheme’) was propounded by appellant No.3 to facilitate the voluntary retirement of employees and workers of appellant No.1 and certain other mills operated by appellant No.2. It is of significance to note that this MVRS was proposed pursuant to the recommendations made by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (for short ‘BIFR’), with the objective of rationalising surplus manpower and reducing the losses of appellant No.2. BIFR had come into the picture as the production activities of appellant No.2 were brought to a standstill and it had been declared a sick undertaking under the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985. The financial condition of appellant No.2 was so precarious that BIFR recommended closure of nine out of eleven mills of appellant No.2, including appellant No.1. While making this recommendation, in order to secure the interests of the employees, BIFR imposed a condition that the mills would only be closed if all employees working therein were given the benefit of a voluntary retirement scheme. Thus, MVRS came to be promulgated in supersession of the earlier revised voluntary retirement scheme.
Please become a Premium member. If you are already a Premium member, login here to access the full content.
