Tis Hazari court additional district judge (ADJ) A.K. Chawla has issued a notice to embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran for allegedly not complying with the earlier court order in which the embassy was directed to pay Rs 7,89,600 to one of its illegally terminated employee S. Ashraf Rizvi.
Additional district and session judge D.C. Anand of the same court on November 14, 2007, had directed the embassy to pay Rs 7,89,600 with an interest of 9 per cent to Mr Rizvi, but the embassy allegedly did not comply with the order of the court, prompting the ADJ Chawla to issue a notice to the embassy for July 16.
The services of Mr Rizvi, working as secretary in the department of science and education of the embassy, were terminated in May 2002 by one of the first secretary Ebrahim Hajizadeh without any prior notice to him after availing his services for about 13 years.
This illegal action of the embassy was challenged in the court after getting the formal consent from the foreign secretary, government of India. Mr Rizvi has moved the Delhi high court, which had on April 5, 2010, directed the embassy to get the court order executed and pay the said amount as awarded by the Tis Hazari court in the year 2007.
After the court’s order, Mr Rizvi, talking to this newspaper over phone, said, “It is not a matter of few hundred thousand rupees but is a matter of life, honour and dignity of an Indian citizen in general and law and the judiciary of the country in particular. He further said he will fight till he gets justice from the court.”