Kalpakkam quarters: High Court upholds DAE’s order

Chennai: The Madras high court has upheld an order of the department of atomic energy for common pool accommodation for the employees of various units located in an around Kalpakkam including Madras Atomic Power Station (Maps).

 Justice V.Parthiban dismissed the petition filed by Tamil Nadu Atomic Power Employees Union and V.Sundararajan, which also sought to restrain the authorities from clubbing the houses earmarked and given exclusively to the employees of Maps with the houses belonging to the employees of other units of DAE and from allotting houses to the employees of Maps under the common pool and common seniority list of the employees of DAE units and Maps.

 The judge said no doubt that way back on May 30, 1988, an office memorandum was issued by freezing the houses for Maps only and the said arrangement was in place for over 30 years and the employees of Maps enjoyed exclusive privilege of being allotted quarters for themselves which were earmarked for them excluding other employees of other units of Kalpakkam. Nevertheless, the department after noticing certain disparities in such exclusive enjoyment by one set of employees alone while exclusion of similarly placed employees of other units, has decided to streamline the process of allotment of quarters by maintaining a common pool, the judge added.

 The judge said change of service condition can be complained of only if the right to be allotted quarters as per the procedure was taken away. In this case, the employees of Maps can continue to have quarters allotted to them, but what was sought to be removed was not the right to be allotted quarters, but the right of exclusivity. Therefore, by no stretch of legal standards, it can be considered that the conditions of service sought to be violated by streamlining the procedure. In fact, such exclusivity enjoyed by the MAPs employees of over 30 years, cannot be termed as condition of service as that would offend Article 14 of the Constitution of India. This was more so when the employees of other units of DAE were awaiting to be allotted quarters, such exclusive privilege conferred on Maps employees at a particular point of time, cannot be continued by causing heart burn among the similarly placed set of employees.

Therefore, in order to remove heart burn and disparity, the department has initiated action by issuing letter dated January 14, 2019 by not taking away the right of the employees of MAPS of their allotment of quarters, but the government only brought in parity in allotment of quarters among all the employees of various units functioning under DAE, the judge added.