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SC rejects Balco Employees' Union plea for divestment review

The trendsetting judgement of the Supreme Court upholding the Centre's decision to divest its stake in Baharat Aluminium Company at Korba has attained finality with the court dismissing a petition by Balco Employees' Union seeking review of the same order.

The review petition was put up before a three-judge Bench headed by Justice B N Kirpal. The Bench rejected the plea on Tuesday.

The petitioner had alleged that Sterlite Industries Ltd, which bought 51 per cent of government shares in Balco for a price of Rs 5515 million, had gone back on certain commitments it had made in the agreement with the employees to end the prolonged strike by the workers.

The employees' union said that Sterlite had given a blanket offer before the Supreme Court that it would not retrench any employee. However, in the agreement with the employees' union, it said that there would be no retrenchment for a period of one year, the union alleged.

On December 10 last year, a three-judge Bench headed by Justice B N Kirpal, while holding the divestment in Balco as valid, had come down heavily on the Chhattishgarh government for raising a controversy without any basis regarding the transfer of tribal land and the transparency of the divestment deal.

Writing the judgement for the Bench, Justice Kirpal had said it was not for the court to consider the merit of the economic policies of the government. "Parliament is the proper forum for questioning such policy," the Bench said.

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