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Giridhar v. The State of Maharashtra

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 321Decided 6 Mar 2019
Civil Appeal No. 957 of 2017
Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

Giridhar was appointed as a Lecturer in 1989 against a post reserved for the Scheduled Tribe category, since no ST candidate was available despite repeated advertisements over several years, as permitted under a 1990 Government Resolution that required such posts to eventually be "de-reserved" if no reserved-category candidate came forward. He made repeated representations from 1997 onward seeking de-reservation and full seniority/pay benefits from his original 1989 appointment date, but authorities delayed acting, and he only filed a court case in 2011 after being told by government circulars not to approach courts without first exhausting the representation process. The Bombay High Court eventually agreed he was entitled to benefits from his original appointment date in principle, but restricted the monetary arrears to only the three years preceding his 2011 petition (i.e., from 03.07.2008), and he appealed that restriction to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that monetary benefits/arrears can only be restricted for a period of delay that is actually attributable to the employee, and found that here the delay was not Giridhar's fault: he had been making representations since 1997 and was explicitly discouraged by government circulars from going straight to court without exhausting the representation process first. The Court also rejected the State's claim that the High Court's restriction was based on a "consent" by Giridhar's counsel, finding no such concession was actually made. Since the State and university authorities themselves had delayed acting on his legitimate claim for de-reservation under their own 1990 policy, the Court held he was entitled to all monetary benefits and arrears calculated from his original appointment date of 26.12.1989, not merely from 2008. The appeal was allowed, the High Court's restriction was set aside, and the respondents were directed to pay all consequential benefits within three months.

Lesson Learnt

When a government employee's delay in approaching court is caused by the government's own rules requiring exhaustion of internal representations first (or by the authorities' own slow response to legitimate claims), that delay cannot later be held against the employee to cut down the back-pay or benefits they are entitled to.

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

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