Hari Nandan Prasad and Another v. Employer in Relation to Management of Food Corporation of India and Another
Background
Two FCI daily-wage workers were terminated without the notice and compensation required by labour law. An industrial tribunal ordered reinstatement, half back wages and regularisation, but the High Court reversed that relief. The workers relied on a scheme under which comparable employees had been made permanent.
Decision Breakdown
The Court distinguished the workers' situations and partly allowed the appeal. Hari Nandan had left service years before the regularisation scheme and was not entitled to reinstatement; compensation rather than return to work was appropriate, and his appeal was dismissed. The second worker was in service when the scheme operated and met its relevant service requirement, while comparable workers received its benefit. Denying him the same treatment was discriminatory, so his tribunal award was restored. Industrial tribunals retain remedial powers, but cannot order regularisation merely because someone worked for years or where doing so violates equal-opportunity requirements.
Lesson Learnt
Working as a daily wager does not automatically create a permanent post. A worker covered by a valid regularisation scheme can, however, challenge discriminatory exclusion when comparable workers receive its benefit.