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Netram Sahu v. State of Chhattisgarh & Anr.

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 258Decided 23 Mar 2018
Civil Appeal No. 1254 of 2018
Justice R.K. Agrawal · Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre

Background

The appellant worked as a daily-wager with the Water Resources Department of Chhattisgarh from 1986, and his service was later regularised to the post of Pump Operator in 2008, with retirement following in 2011, giving him over 25 years of actual service. When he sought gratuity for this entire period, the State resisted, and while the Controlling and Appellate Authorities under the Payment of Gratuity Act ruled in his favour, the Chhattisgarh High Court (both Single Judge and Division Bench) reversed this, holding his pre-regularisation years as a daily wager could not count toward continuous service.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that once the State itself had regularised the appellant's services, he was entitled to count his entire period of service, including the 22 years spent as a daily wager, for the purpose of computing "continuous service" of five years under Section 2-A of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972. The Court found the High Court had wrongly relied on the Umadevi judgment, which does not apply where services have actually been regularised. It restored the orders of the Controlling and Appellate Authorities, directed the State to pay the gratuity within three months, and awarded Rs. 25,000/- in costs against the State for forcing a genuine claimant into prolonged litigation.

Lesson Learnt

Once an employer regularises a worker's job, the years spent working informally before regularisation still count toward the years of continuous service needed to claim statutory benefits like gratuity: employers, especially government departments, cannot use technicalities to deny benefits earned through long years of actual work.

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

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