Punjab and Haryana High Court tells PGI striking workers to resume duty

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the striking hospital & sanitation attendants, and housekeeping workers of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGI) here to immediately return to work. The direction came as the court emphasised the essential nature of hospital services.

The Bench also allowed the Chandigarh Administration and the PGI to take all legally available coercive measures, including enforcing the East Punjab Essential Services Maintenance Act, 1947, if the workers continued to abstain from their duties.

The order was issued in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the PGI against the Union of India and other respondents, amid a workers’ strike that began on October 10.

The Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Anil Kshetarpal observed that the ongoing strike had severely disrupted the administration and hygiene at the PGI, one of the country’s premier medical institutes. The Bench asserted: “The hygiene and sanitation of the institute-hospital has been put to peril.”

Counsel for the UT Chandigarh Administration informed the court of the applicability of the 1947 Act, which has the penalty provision for strikes in essential services. Citing past enforcement of the Act, counsel stated that, “the penal provisions of the Act of 1947 can very well be enforced, as was done earlier on January 4, 1968.”

The court found “no reason as to why UT, Chandigarh Administration, cannot invoke the rigours of the 1947 Act for maintaining and facilitating the hospital services in PGIMER.”

The court was also informed by one of the respondents, appearing in person, that the workers’ grievances involved unaddressed service issues with the contractor responsible for their employment.

But the Bench clarified that unresolved service disputes did not justify the workers’ decision to abandon their posts in a critical healthcare institution.

The court stated: “The pendency of any service dispute cannot become cause for an employee to abstain from work in a hospital, which is an essential service.”

The Bench granted the PGI and the UT Administration the freedom to enforce contractual and legal provisions, including the possibility of terminating services or taking disciplinary actions if workers fail to comply. “The PGIMER is also free to take all coercive steps in terms of the agreement between it and the contractor,” the court directed, As an interim measure, the court stayed the strike notice dated September 16.