Taking serious note of almost non-existent infrastructure available to a Labour Court and Industrial Tribunals at Gorakhpur, the Allahabad High Court yesterday directed the State's Labour Ministry to submit a report on possible remedial steps. The Principal Secretary to the Uttar Pradesh Labour Ministry has been directed to indicate the steps needed to restore the labor court and industrial tribunals to a state of normal functioning throughout the week. The order was passed after Justice JJ Munir took on record a report submitted by the Presiding Officer or the Gorakhpur Labour Court, who had been directed to explain the 12-year pendency of a labor case.

The report served to appraise the High Court of the disturbing state of infrastructure that the labour court and industrial courts at Gorakhpur were faced with.

As detailed in the order: "The condition of the Labour Court, U.P., Gorakhpur shows that the Labour Court and the Industrial Tribunals together are functioning in a private house. They have a single courtroom and a single chamber to serve the Presiding Officers, Labour Court, and the Industrial Tribunal, both. The result is that the Labour Court and the Industrial Tribunal sit in the same courtroom and the Presiding Officers make it convenient in the same chamber on different days of the week. This is the state of affairs for the dispensation of justice to workmen, who approach these fora under the Industrial Disputes Act/U.P. Industrial Disputes Act."