Chennai: Giving partial relief to arrested striking Tamil Nadu government employees by ordering their release on July 11, the Madras High Court, however, directed them to place the main plea against their dismissals under Essential Service Maintenance Act (ESMA) before the state administrative tribunal (SAT) while observing that the controversial state ordinance enabling their summary termination did not violate any Fundamental Right.

Hundreds of dismissed employees, who had thronged the court since July 6, appeared disappointed on being informed of the judgement as they had expected a favourable order.

The much-awaited order was issued late on July 11 evening by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice B Subhashan Reddy and Justice K Govindarajan on a batch of petitions, including one from the Tamil Nadu Co-operative Officers Association, and also an appeal by the state government challenging a single judge's order directing the release of arrested employees and to allow them to rejoin duty.

Accepting the government's main contention that SAT was the appropriate authority to hear the matter as it related to service of government employees, the judges held: "The writ petitions are not maintainable without exhaustion of the remedy before SAT.

"We don't see infraction of the Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Art 21 as no new offence has been created under the Ordinance."

The state government under the ordinance amending ESMA, which gave them powers to summarily dismiss employees who had commenced an indefinite strike from July 2, had dismissed lakhs of government employees.

PTI