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Judgment
Rajasekhar Mantha, J
The Court : Affidavit in Opposition and the Reply filed in Court are taken on record.
The sum and substance of the claim of the writ petitioner is that the employer has stopped complying with the provisions of section 59 of the West Bengal Co-operative Societies Act, 2006 by reason of a Government order.
The writ petitioner is a Co-operative Society of the employees of the West Bengal Transport Corporation Ltd. (WBTC), formerly known as the Calcutta Tramways Co. Ltd. The members of the petitioner are all without exception employees of WBTC.
The members of the petitioner, in terms of the provisions of the 2006 Act and by reason of the by-laws of the said Society, are entitled to loans and facilities from the petitioner Society.
By operation of section 59 of the 2006 Act, the members of the Society are entitled to repay such loans by way of direct deduction from their salaries payable to them by WBTC. The statute (the 2006 Act) casts an obligation on the employer WBTC to accept an agreement of loan and terms of repayment upon being forwarded by a member or the petitioner. The WBTC is then obliged to make regular deductions from the salaries and emoluments payable to the members of the petitioner by WBTC and credit the said amounts towards repayment of instalments of the loans obtained by the members of the petitioner.
The WBTC underwent bad weather and by reason of revival measures of its business, various assets came to be sold and new business policies were adopted. As a consequence of the new approach and in aid of revival of the WBTC, the State, which is the principal shareholder of WBTC, had resolved not to undertake the exercise of making deductions from the salaries and emoluments of its employees and consequently the process of crediting any amount to the petitioner society was stopped.
The petitioner alleged that the employer, notwithstanding its decision of not making any further deduction, however, continued to do so. This is denied by counsel for WBTC.
The only question to be decided is whether the employer can wriggle out of its responsibility or obligation cast on it by section 59 of the 2006 Act?
The answer to the above question is an emphatic 'No'. While it is true that it may be partially onerous on the employer, to spare man power for the purpose of making the aforesaid deductions to about 3000 odd employees, as more fully described in paragraph 8 of the affidavit in opposition filed by WBTC, it is a burden that cannot be avoided. The said burden is required to be carried out as part of the duties of an employer and is an integral part of the employer-employee relations. It is also a beneficial measure for the wellbeing of the employees as a whole and to further Co-operative movement as duly codified under the 2006 Act and its earlier versions.
Mr. Sen then argued that the State would have to adopt certain other measures to mitigate the outgoings towards earmarking employee time and consequentially financial implications. That, in the opinion of this Court, is in the exclusive domain of the employer and this Court can have nothing to say in that regard.
In those circumstances, the interim order passed on January 30, 2019 is made absolute. The WBTC will continue to make monthly deductions from the salaries and emoluments payable to all the employees identified by the petitioner as lonees and whose agreements have been forwarded to the employer by the petitioner, month by month and the same shall be continued to be credited to the loan accounts of the individual members of the petitioner Society
In so far as the arrears are concerned, arising out of all deductions not made for any particular period, the WBTC may formulate a scheme and/or a measure in consultation with the petitioner, to square off the loans, outstanding dues and subscription amounts, preferably within a period of one year from date to ensure that all earlier undeducted installments, outstanding dues and subscription amounts are appropriately credited to the accounts of the individual loanees of the petitioner society.
It must be ensured by WBTC as well as the petitioner that no undue hardship is caused to the employees in question who also happen to be the members of the petitioner society.
With the aforesaid directions, the writ petition stands disposed of.