Kerala high court defers KSRTC union referendum

Kochi: High court has deferred the trade union referendum in KSRTC, which was scheduled to be held on April 30.

A division bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and P V Balakrishnan issued the interim order on an appeal filed by L Jayakumari and six other temporary workers of KSRTC. The appellants challenged a single bench judgment which had directed the returning officer to publish the voters list by including only the regular employees, as furnished by KSRTC. The division bench has adjourned the appeal to April 25.

The appellants contended that in previous referendums, temporary workers were granted voting rights. They submitted that although the returning officer had directed KSRTC to include badli/temporary workers who had completed 120 days of service in the final voters list, as they fall within the definition of ‘workmen', KSRTC failed to comply and submitted a final voters list excluding them.

As a result, the returning officer deferred the referendum. KSRTC and others then approached high court challenging this decision. Subsequently, the single bench stayed the order of the returning officer and directed him to publish the final voters list without including temporary workers, and to proceed with the referendum on April 30 as per the original notification. This order is now under challenge in the present appeal.