The Madras High Court on Monday granted an interim injunction restraining the trade unions associated with the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) from resorting to a strike or other agitations that could potentially disrupt power supply and put consumers to grave inconvenience.
Acting Chief Justice T. Raja and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the restraint order after Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran as well as senior counsel K.M. Vijayan and advocate N. Manokaran, representing two litigants, said hospitals, schools, colleges and even milk supply would be affected due to the strike.
A. Saravanan, a private travels operator from Chennai, and advocate J. Elumalai, also from Chennai, had filed individual public interest litigation petitions against the proposed move of the trade unions to strike work from January 10 if their charter of demands were not accepted by the State government.
It was brought to the notice of the court that the demands of the power sector employees included filling up of vacancies, implementing wage revision, pending since December 2019, providing benefits on a par with government employees and giving up the practice of outsourcing the workforce.
The government had agreed to hold talks with the office-bearers of the trade unions to discuss their demands, and accordingly, the second round of talks were underway in Chennai on Monday. Even before the talks concluded, the unions had given a call for strike from Tuesday, the litigants complained.
They pointed out that scores of power consumers across the State would be put to grave inconvenience if the electricity supply gets disrupted, especially during the Pongal festival season, due to the proposed strike. They urged the court to intervene in the interest of the public.
After granting the ex-parte interim injunction and ordering notices, returnable in two weeks, to all the trade unions, the judges instructed the AAG to ensure that the order gets communicated to the unions.