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Milan Rana vs Govt. of NCT of Delhi

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 388Decided 5 Apr 2022
Civil Appeal No. 2722 of 2022
Uday Umesh Lalit · S. Ravindra Bhat · Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha

Background

The appellant, an ad-hoc school teacher (PET) in a Delhi government-aided school, sought regularisation and back benefits on par with a similarly-placed colleague, Harbhajan Kaur, whose regularisation (with full back wages from 2001) had already been finally upheld by the courts. The appellant's own claim for identical treatment was initially dismissed by a Single Judge, but in a second round of litigation the Delhi High Court's Division Bench granted her regularisation, but only with benefits running from the date she filed her second writ petition, not from the earlier date given to Harbhajan Kaur.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found the appellant was undisputedly similarly placed to Harbhajan Kaur, and the respondent government did not dispute her entitlement to regularisation. It held there was no valid reason to restrict her benefits to the date of her second writ petition when Harbhajan Kaur had been given benefits from the start of the relevant academic session. Applying the same yardstick, the Court extended the appellant's entitlement to the beginning of the 2002 academic session (when her original writ petition was filed), directing implementation within eight weeks and payment of arrears within two weeks thereafter.

Lesson Learnt

When two employees are truly similarly situated, courts will apply the principle of parity to ensure one is not arbitrarily given a less favourable effective date for the same relief simply because of procedural twists in how their cases were litigated.

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

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