The government of India must, therefore, adopt a pragmatic and proactive attitude to ensure that economy should not be in the whirlwind. It must inform the Supreme Court that the wages for the lockdown period would be borne by the government in the interests of the employees, employers and the industry so as to bring the economy on the rails.
Industries and business establishments are like the arteries and the lifelines of the economy of the country. No country can afford to lose sight of the fact that if the economy is sick, the people would be deprived of their livelihood in the absence of the supply of the essentials. Pandemic COVID-19 has brought extra-ordinary problems for the whole world. Business and production activities have come to a grinding halt. They need to be resuscitated and it is the primary responsibility of any government to ensure that the industries start working with all vigour. Unfortunately, our government has shown extreme insensitivity by asking the employers to pay their employees even for the period when there has neither been any production nor any work in the establishments during the lockdown period. The employers approached the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India for setting aside the highly callous order of the government. They expected that the Hon’ble Supreme Court would come to the rescue of the employers, who are already groaning with pain but...
H.L. Kumar
is Advocate, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi. He has also been former Law Teacher in University of Delhi.
View all posts
