Chennai: Holding that the act of the employees of Hindustan Motor Finance Corporation Limited in Thiruvallur district continuing to forcibly occupy the factory premises from May 2, 2019, till date clearly amounts to an offence under section 441 IPC (Criminal trespass) and their continued sit in protest is unjustified and unlawful, the Madras high court has directed them to leave the factory immediately on their own on or before June 17.
Disposing of a petition from Hindustan Motor Finance Corporation Limited, Justice N.Anand Venkatesh said if the employees refuse to leave the factory premises within the time stipulated by this court, the petitioner shall take the assistance of the Inspector of Police, Kadampathur police station to remove them from the factory premises and the Inspector of Police shall provide necessary police protection in that regard. This court has already passed an interim order restraining the petitioner from disengaging the services of the 19 employees. If their services are not utilized by the petitioner as directed by this court, it is left open to the employees to work out their remedy in accordance with law, the judge added.
The judge said the Inspector of Police shall provide police protection to the factory premises of the petitioner company to ensure free ingress and egress of men and materials. The Inspector of Police shall ensure that no law and order problem was created near the factory premises and normalcy was maintained. In case of any strike or demonstration, the same can be conducted 200 metres away from the petitioner’s factory premises, the judge added.
According to petitioner, it was having a factory at Adhigathur village, where they used to manufacture Mitsubishi vehicles under license from Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, Japan and were selling those vehicles and spare parts through their own network in India. As the sale started coming down drastically, from November 2018 onwards, all the manufacturing operations were stopped. From January 2019 onwards, the petitioner was facing serious financial constraints and was not in a position to pay full wages to its employees. Left with no other option, the petitioner terminated the services of 34 managerial staff including the 19 employees with effect from April 30, 2019/May 31, 2019 and salary was paid till then. However, out of 34, 20 employees forcibly entered the factory on May 2 and refused to leave the factory. They also threatened to commit suicide, the petitioner added and sought police protection.
