HC asks CAG to hold enquiry into contract labourers engaged by Seeds Corporation

The high court has asked the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to conduct an enquiry into the manner in which the contract labourers are engaged by the Karnataka State Seeds Corporation Limited. Justice Suraj Govindaraj has passed this order recently on petitions filed both by the corporation and a workman challenging the order passed by a labour court.

The workman in the petition before the court was engaged by the corporation as a data entry operator. She had worked between 2007 and 2015 under four different contractors. The names of these contractors are; Novel Security Agency, Balaji Enterprises, Spy Well Detective Agency and KEONICS Agency.

The petitioner C Sujatha was deputed to the Agricultural Department and in 2013 she placed a request to increase her salary and also to regularise her services. However, when her services were terminated in 2015, the petitioner raised a dispute before the Labour Court. The Labour Court directed the corporation to make a payment of Rs 5 lakh as a consolidated compensation. Both moved the high court challenging this order.

After perusing the documents, the high court said that it was shocking that from 2007 till 2015, the workwoman, engaged as a Data Entry Operator, was onboarded to different contractors. “I am unable to accept that the workwoman who continued to work with the Corporation was onboarded with different service providers while discharging the same services to the employer. It is not known in what manner tenders were invited by the authorities for the contract. Whether there was verification of who were the employees of that contractors/service providers, was a list of workers provided along with the bid,” the court said.

The bench said that there is a need for an enquiry by the CAG as regards the manner in which the contract labourers are being engaged by the corporation.

“Whether the same is a genuine bonafide transaction or is it a veiled methodology adopted by the respondent, and whether such a methodology goes against the principles of welfare State as enshrined in the preamble of the Constitution of India. The enquiry to be completed within a period of 12 months from today, and report is to be placed in this file,” Justice Suraj Govindaraj said.

Meanwhile, the court was informed that the petitioner workwoman has joined KEONICS, a Service Provider, which has deputed her to the e-Governance Department with effect from March 2022.