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Executive Engineer, Maharashtra State Electricity Board v. Sunil Shantram Satarkar

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal Nos. 10665-10667 of 2016)Decided 1 May 2017
Civil Appeal Nos. 10665-10667 of 2016
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice R. Banumathi

Background

Workers employed as daily wagers by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board for over 25 years secured an order from the Industrial Court directing either their reinstatement or regularization/permanency in Class IV posts, which the High Court affirmed. The Board appealed, relying on the Supreme Court's own landmark ruling in Secretary, State of Karnataka v. Uma Devi (2006), which generally bars courts from ordering regularization of irregularly-appointed employees.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court did not disturb the finding that the workers had genuinely served for 25-plus years, and noted that similarly-situated daily-wage workers who had worked for 25 years or even less had already been granted permanency elsewhere in the organisation. Finding no justification to treat these respondents differently, the Court disposed of the appeals by directing the Board to reconsider the respondents' cases in light of the Industrial Court's and High Court's directions and the treatment already given to comparable workers, giving the respondents one month to point out similar instances and the Board a further month to pass fresh orders. The Court made clear this direction was confined to "the peculiar facts of these cases."

Lesson Learnt

Even where the law generally disfavours court-ordered "back door" regularization of irregular appointees, an employer cannot deny parity to long-serving workers if it has already given the same benefit to other, similarly-placed employees: consistency of treatment among comparable staff can itself become a ground for relief.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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