Seamen PF: Bombay HC directs Govt to take decision in 4 weeks / Dec 21, 2005 / Business Line
From Indiapensions
Seamen PF: Bombay HC directs Govt to take decision in 4 weeks
THE Bombay High Court has directed the Union Government to take an appropriate decision within four weeks on how it will deal with the Rs 92.78-crore loss suffered by Seamen's Provident Fund (SPF) in securities trading in 2002.
The directive came during the hearing of a petition filed by the Indian National Shipowners Association seeking a stay against the proposed strike by seamen's unions demanding recouping of the loss suffered by SPF.
The court gave the directive on December 12 after hearing the Government counsel stating that the Government had earlier agreed to consider the unions' demand provided they gave an undertaking on their consent for a structural reform of SPF and for a one-time settlement.
According to a lawyer, the unions have now agreed to the Government's suggestion.
The court said that in view of the assurance given by the unions that they will accept the Government offer as one-time settlement and that they will not treat the said decision as a precedent, "we direct the Union of India to take appropriate decision with a period of four weeks from today (December 12)."
The court has also directed the unions to defer their decision to go on strike till January 31. The next hearing on the case has been scheduled for January 16.
The SPF had suffered the Rs 92.78-crore loss as the fund was invested in Government securities allegedly in violation of the prescribed guidelines.
The Government immediately took action against the SPF Commissioner and ordered a probe.
But is not known whether the Government was able to recover any amount so far. At one stage, the Ministry of Shipping had recommended a scheme to make good the losses but the Finance Ministry had reservations about it.
Initially, the Forward Seamen's Union of India had given the strike notice in November.
When ship owners took the matter to court, the rival union, the National Union of Seafarers of India, also joined as a party.
The unions were also protesting against the SPF trustees' decision to reduce the rate of interest on seamen's provident fund from 8.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent from the current fiscal.
