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SC adjourns order on Balco till July 17; regrets workers' response

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned till July 17 further direction on the three petitions challenging the divestment of 51 per cent equity in Bharat Aluminium Company to Sterlite Industries.

The three petitions were filed by the workers unions of the company, an employee of the company, and the third by B L Wadhera, and had earlier been transferred to the apex court from the high courts of Delhi and Chhattisgarh.

On Tuesday, a three-judge bench comprising B N Kirpal, Ruma Pal and Brijesh Kumar regretted that the workers' union had failed to respond to the offer of the Balco management for payment of two months' salary as advance to employees who rejoin duty.

The bench emphasised that it could not do anything better.

Senior counsel Ashok Desai, appearing for Balco, said that the workers should have responded favourably to the offer and allowed Balco to function. Instead, he pointed out, the workers union had submitted a long list of demands, including cancellation of the Balco deal.

Attorney General Soli Sorabjee also joined Desai in frowning upon the workers' decision to decline the management's offer.

The court also issued notices to Daewoo Power Ltd and Essar Steel Ltd, who were also allotted tribal land for setting up industries in Chhattisgarh.

The court pointed out that the notice to them was necessary since the allotment of tribal land affected the tribals adversely.

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