The government had appointed 21 judges selected through the Gujarat Public Service Commission to courts facing a shortage of judges. Their postings will now be decided by the High Court; this is the first time since labour courts came into being that the labour department will have no say in appointments.

It was about a year ago that the Supreme Court ruled that labour court judges would be appointed by the high courts concerned. While the other State governments have reportedly changed the law related to appointments, the Gujarat government is yet to do so.

But since no appointments had been made in this period, the State government came in for a rebuke only lately.

Ironically, jurisdiction over labour courts had become a matter of dispute between 1995 and 1998. A Supreme Court judge had ruled in 1995 that ``the labour court is not a court subordinate to the High Court in the sense of the contempt of Courts Act.''

The apex court judgement had rendered the labour court virtually ineffective as high courts refused to entertain any contempt cases on judgements delivered by labour courts. Labour court judgements soon became just a piece of paper, with industrial managements refusing to comply with them, knowing fully well that the high court would not entertain contempt cases.

According to the Vadodara Kamdar Union, as many as 75 per cent of the judgements passed in this period were not honoured. This led labour unions to demand either the inclusion of labour courts under the high court or their empowerment.

After three years, in 1998, another Supreme Court judgement gave labour courts the teeth that had been missing. Lakhawala admitted that the government came to know of the Supreme Court ruling only last week.

Barring the appointment of judges, administrative jurisdiction like payment etc rests will the labour department.