LexHARI NANDAN PRASAD & ANR. versus EMPLOYER L/R TO MANGMT.OF FCI & ANR.
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[2014] 2 S.C.R. 955 HARi NANDAN PRASAD & ANR. v. EMPLOYER l/R TO MANGMT.OF FCI & ANR. (Civil Appeal Nos. 2417-2418 of 2014) FEBRUARY 17, 2014 [K.S. RADHAKRISHNAN AND A.K. SIKRI, JJ.] INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES ACT, 1947: A B s:-25-F - Termination without any notice or pay in lieu of c notice or retrenchment compensation - Termin~ted workers worked for more than 240 days continuously preceding their disengagement/termination - Held: Mandatory pre-condition of retrenchment in paying the dues in accordance with s.25- F having not been complied with, that is sufficient to render 0 the termination as illegal. s.25-F - Reinstatement - Entitlement - Held: Relief of reinstatement cannot be granted to the persons who were engaged as daily wagers and whose services were terminated in a distant past and where termination was held to be illegal E only on a technical ground of not adhering to the provisions of s.25-F of the Act. Power of Labour Court/Industrial Adjudicator - Scope of - Held: The powers of the industrial adjudicator under the F Industrial Disputes Act are wide - By empowering the adjudicator authorities under the Act, to give reliefs such as a reinstatement of wrongfully dismissed or discharged workmen, which may not be permissible in common law or justified under the terms of the contract between the employer G and such workmen, the legislature has attempted to frustrate the unfair labour practices and secure the policy of collective bargaining as a road to industrial peace - In order to achieve the said objectives, the Labour Courts/Industrial Tribunals are 955 . H 956 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2014] 2 S.C.R. 1 A given wide powers not only to enforce the rights but even to create new rights, with the underlying objective to achieve social justice - The said sweeping power conferred upon the Tribunal is not unbridled - It is, thus, this fine balancing which is required to be achieved while adjudicating a particular s dispute, keeping in mind that the industrial disputes are settled by industrial adjudication on principle of (air play and justice. ' Regularization of daily wagers - Claim for - Held: When there are posts available, in the absence of any unfair labour practice the Labour Court would not give direction for C regularization only because a worker has continued as daily wage workerladhoc/temporary worker for number of years - Further, if there are no posts available, such a direction for regularization would be impermissible - In these circumstances giving of direction to regularize such a person, D only on the basis of number of years put in by such a worker as daily wager etc. may amount to backdoor entry into the service which is an anathema to Art. 14 of the Constitution - Further, such a direction would not be given when the concerned worker does not meet the eligibility requirement of E the post in question as per the Recruitment Rules - However, wherever it is found that similarly situated workmen are regularized by the employer itself under some scheme or otherwise and the workmen in question who have approached Industrial/Labour Court are at par with them, direction of F regularization in such cases may be legally justified, otherwise, non-regularization of the left out workers itself would amount to invidious discrimination qua them in such cases and would be violative of Art. 14 of the Constitution - Constitution of India, 1950 - Article 14. G Termination of daily wagers - Circular issued by the employer whereby any temporary worker employed for more than 90 days was entitled for regularization of his service and following the said circular, the company had regularized the · H services of 70-75 similarly situated casual workers - Claim for HARi NANDAN PRASAD & ANR. v. EMPLOYER l/R 957 TO MANGMT.OF FCI & ANR. regularization by appellants-daily wagers - Held: In the instant A case, appellant no: 1 was not in service on the date when the scheme was promulgated as his services were dispensed with, 4 years before that circular - Therefore, the relief of monetary compensation in lieu of reinstatement would be more appropriate in his case - However, in so far as appellant no. 2 B was concerned, when the Circular was issued, he was in service and within few months of the issuing of that Circular he had completed 240 days of service - Non-regularization of appellant No.2, while giving the benefit of that Circular to other si
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