Gujarat high court fines BSNL Rs 1 lakh

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat high court has imposed penalty of Rs 1 lakh on Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for wasting court’s time and for unnecessarily dragging workmen in litigation.

A division bench of Justice AS Dave and Justice Biren Vaishnav has ordered BSNL to deposit Rs 1 lakh with the Gujarat High Court Legal Services Committee for filing frivolous petitions. The HC came down heavily for filing petition against a labour court’s order which was in favour of two workers.The HC said that BSNL’s case was one more case just to wriggle out from the earlier orders passed by the labour court, which was confirmed by the high court and even the Supreme Court upheld them. The case filed by BSNL was quite similar to the earlier cases and hence the judges refused to hear its counsel on merit.