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M/s Creative Garments Ltd. vs Kashiram Verma (Civil Appeal No. 5758 of 2012)

Civil Appeal · 2023 INSC 243Decided 16 Mar 2023
Civil Appeal No. 5758 of 2012
Abhay S. Oka · Rajesh Bindal

Background

A Labour Court had ordered a company (the Management) to reinstate a dismissed workman with continuity of service and full back wages. The Bombay High Court (both single and division bench) upheld this award. The company appealed to the Supreme Court. During the years the appeal was pending, the company repeatedly wrote to the workman asking him to report for duty, and even before the High Court the workman's counsel had given a statement that he would report for work on a specific date, but the workman never actually showed up to resume employment.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that despite multiple opportunities and clear assurances (including one recorded in a court order) that the workman would report for duty, he never did so. This conduct showed he was no longer interested in the job (and may have found other employment), so the Court held the back-wages and reinstatement award could not be sustained and set it aside, allowing the company's appeal. Separately, the Court used the case to flag a systemic problem: because the workman's address on record was only "care of" his union rather than his own permanent address, serving him with notices had been difficult throughout the litigation. The Court surveyed multiple labour statutes (Payment of Wages Act, Workmen's Compensation Act, Industrial Disputes Act, Minimum Wages Act, Payment of Gratuity Act, etc.) which already require permanent addresses to be furnished, and directed that going forward, in all labour cases, workers (or their union/representative) must furnish the workman's actual permanent address for effective service. Decision Breakdown (cont'd): No monetary refund issues arose beyond returning a Rs. 10,000 security deposit to the company.

Lesson Learnt

In service/labour disputes, if you are awarded reinstatement but then fail, without good reason, to actually report back to work despite being given the chance, you risk losing the benefit of that award; separately, always provide your own permanent address (not just your union's) in any legal proceeding so that court notices reach you.

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

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