CHENNAI: Revenue divisional officers (RDOs) in the State will not have the powers of a judicial magistrate to conduct trial under the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act, 1976, as the Madras High Court has struck down Section 21 of the Act.
Hearing a petition filed by Ganjendran, a bonded labourer, Acting Chief Justice Satish K Agnihotri and Justice M Sathyanarayanan said that Section 21 of the Bonded Labour System Abolition (BLSA) Act, which gives powers to Revenue divisional officers to conduct trials in place of the judicial magistrate, is in violation of Articles 14, 21 and 50 of the Constitution of India.
Stating that conferring such powers to the RDO was unjust, unfair and also conflicting to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the judges struck down Section 21 of the Act.
They also quashed a Government Order passed by the State Government in July 1987 conferring the power of a judicial magistrate of the First Class on all Revenue divisional officers in the State and on all tahsildars of independent charge of taluks in the State for the trial of offences under the Act.
The judges also directed the jurisdictional Revenue divisional officers to transfer the criminal cases along with relevant records instituted under the said Act to the file of the Chief Judicial Magistrates, who in turn were directed to transfer the cases to the judicial magistrates.
The court observed that on such transfers, judicial magistrates shall make every endeavour to dispose of the cases as expeditiously as possible. Stating that a trial should instil confidence, the High Court observed that such a procedure was invalid, unjust and in violation of the principles of natural justice.
Ganjendran, who had been a bonded labourer for 15 years (1990-2005) at a rice mill in Kilambakkam village of Tiruvallur district, stated in his petition that during the period he was made to work 13 hours a day and paid wages as low as `7 and `10 per day.
The wages were withheld as debt. While the ordeal of Ganjendran ended on March 10, 2005 after an inspection by the tahsildar and Revenue divisional officers on the directions of the District Collector, the trial is yet to resume despite an FIR being filed.
“From 2006 till now, the case has remained in its preliminary stages without a trial date being fixed,” the petitioner told the court. He also stated that nine more cases were still pending with the RDO, Tiruvallur.