VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday accorded permission, but with conditions, to the United Electricity Contract Workers Association, AP Electricity Staff and Workers Union, AP Electricity Contract Employees Union and AP Electricity Trade Union to stage a protest in Vijayawada.
Hearing the petition filed by the unions challenging the Vijayawada Police Commissioner’s refusal to give permission for the protest to press their demands, Justice K Sreenivasa Reddy asked the petitioners’ counsel to submit the date of the protest and the number of participants and other details.
The petitioners’ counsel submitted to the court that the unions are not going on strike and only planning to stage a protest, which is not a violation of ESMA. There are 97,000 employees in the electricity department and some of them staging a protest will not hamper the services. Government pleader Maheswar Reddy said electricity employees should not be allowed to stage the protest.
After hearing the arguments from both sides, the court accorded conditional permission for the protest. Only the court specified a number of employees should take part in the protest, which should not be held on a working day. The employees taking part in the protest should submit their Aadhaar cards to the police one week before and the protest should not be held for more than two hours, the court stated.