Supreme Court order to compensate for the Justice delayed.

The quote by William E. Gladstone “Justice delayed is justice denied” which violates the principle of natural justice. On the 17th July 2020, the Supreme Court of India upheld the decision of the High Court of Calcutta for a special level petition.  The petitioner Bharat Coking Coal Limited was directed to compensate the respondent the wife of its former employee. 

The fact of the case is that the police on investigation found that the employee had been abducted and murdered in the course of defending a theft at the company premises in the year 1999. The FIR No. 21/2019 was lodged on 3rd July 1999. 

The bench comprising of Justice DY Chandrachud, Indu Malhotra and KM Joseph held the High Court the presumption that under the provisions Section 108 of the Evidence Act,1872. Section 108 requires that when the question is whether a man is alive or dead, and it is proved that he has not been heard of for seven years by those who would naturally have heard of him if he had been alive, the burden of proving that he had alive, the burden of proving that he is alive is shifted to the person who affirms it. 

Also, applied to compensate the respondents as the clause 9.4.2 of the National Coal Wage Agreement III. The same is should be provided by the BCCL within the one month from the date of judgement.  The petitioner needs to pay cost quantified at Rs 2 lakhs to the respondents as they were forced to “run from pillar to post for twenty years”