KOCHI: Coming down heavily on the practice of the "Nokkukooli' (gawking wages) system existing in the state, the Kerala High Court on Friday directed the state government to inform what it has proposed to make Kerala a truly investor-friendly state. "This is certainly the need of the hour. There can be no time to lose for this purpose. The Nokkukooli system should be eradicated," said the court.
Citing the incident that, the movement of an 80-wheel hydraulic-axle trailer carrying components for the construction of the trisomic wind tunnel to ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) was obstructed by people allegedly demanding Nokkukooli, the court also said that this has damaged the image of Kerala. "This incident does not send a good impression about our state," observed Justice Devan Ramachandran.
The court made the observation when a petition filed by TK Sundaresan, Punalur, Kollam against trade unions demanding Nokkukooli for unloading construction materials at his land came up for hearing.
The court said that the allegations of threat, intimidation, and demands of extortions are still existing. The government should come out with a concrete proposal before the court as to how the disputes will have to be dealt with, averted, and resolved in terms of the Head Load Workers Act.
EC Bineesh, the government pleader, submitted that to curtail the unhealthy practice of Nokkukooli, the state police have already issued an instruction to the district police chief for taking stringent action. The state police chief had issued an order against Nokkukoli on March 26, 2012, and in 2018 the government has banned the unhealthy practice following the High Court order in 2017.
Accordingly, for the period from 2018 to date, 11 Criminal cases have been registered in Kerala against demanding Nokkukooli under the provisions of the Kerala Loading and Unloading (Regulations of Wages and Restriction of Unlawful Practices) Act 2002 and also under the Indian Penal Code.
The court observed that "many are small and medium business people. They are not multimillionaires who can afford all these issues. The instances of demanding Nokkukooli give out wrong perceptions about the state. Meanwhile, the rights of the headload workers should also be protected. If trade unions and workers have a complaint about denying their legal rights, they have to approach the labour officer. They should not take the law into their hands. There should be a system to deal with the issue. Nobody wants the system to work properly and everybody wants to continue like this" observed the court.
Even 10 years after the order banning Nokkukooli was issued by the government, the menace still exists. There is a perception that Kerala is unfriendly for investors because of these illegal acts.
"The government should make clear that the headload workers and trade unions cannot take the law into their hands and that any violation from their side will be treated with stringent action. Unless the government comes out with a concrete proposal, no matter the number of government orders or circulars," observed the court and asked "why the government strongly comes out and that no trade union or workers can take the law into their hands. There is a general perception that the trade unions will take the law into their hands. That should be stopped, observed the court.
"The instance of Nokkukooli worrying me as a citizen. Due to the Nokkukooli issue, it is not merely the individual business which is affected, but the collective reputation of our state as a whole," said the judge.
The court also observed that unless the system under the Headload Workers Act is sufficiently armed to effectively deal with the disputes and resolved them, neither the headload workers nor the businessmen will have confidence in the system.