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| Saturday, 9 August 2003 |
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by Wasantha Ramanayake The Supreme Court yesterday awarded over Rs. five million as compensation to 21 employees of the Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE), the petitioners in the Fundamental Rights application filed against the employer who did not granted their service extensions after the completion of 55 years service. The Bench comprised Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva PC and Justices Ameer Ismail, and T.B. Weerasuriya. Delivering the unanimous judgement, Justice T. B. Weerasuriya held that the fundamental rights of the petitioners were violated by the said decision of the Board of Directors of the CWE not to grant their service extension. Court ordered the first respondent Board of Directors of the CWE to pay Rs. 5,740,000 as compensation and cost to the 21 petitioners. In terms of the Court order, the first petitioner was awarded as compensation a sum of Rs.375,000 while seven petitioners were awarded Rs. 325,000 each, nine petitioners got Rs. 275,000 each and two petitioners were to be paid Rs. 225,000 each and the other two were to be paid Rs. 30,000 each. Apart from the compensation all the petitioners were awarded Rs. 5,000 each as costs amounting to total sum of Rs. 105,000. Compensation and cost to be paid before November 30. Justice Weerasuriya further observed that since it was not possible for the petitioners to claim further extension of service, it was just and equitable to grant the petitioners compensation for the violation of their rights. He noted that the petitioners were categorised according to their age, in order to pay the compensation. The Petitioners complained that they should be granted extension under the provisions of the Establishment Code. They claimed that requests for the extension of service would generally be granted except on medical and disciplinary grounds. They claimed that they had a legitimate expectation for the said extension since they had good service records and had been medically fit. The respondents contended that the CWE had been able to save Rs. 6.5 million monthly due to the policy decision of not extending the services of employees who had completed 55 years under the directive of the Minister, since it was highly indebted and overstaffed. Petitioners cited the Board of Directors of the CWE, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake, Secretary to the Ministry Harsha Wickremasinghe and the Attorney General as respondents. Chamathka Weerakoon Unamboowe with Ayanthi Abeywickrema appeared for petitioners. Romesh de Silva PC with Palitha Kumarasinghe instructed by G.G. Arulpragasam appeared for second and third respondents. |
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