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Rajasthan State Road Development and Construction Corporation Ltd. v. Piyush Kant Sharma

Civil Appeal · 2020 INSC 598Decided 15 Oct 2020
Civil Appeal No. 3489 of 2020
Justice Ashok Bhushan · Justice R. Subhash Reddy · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

The respondent, hired on a contractual basis as a Computer Operator, filed a writ petition before the Rajasthan High Court seeking a regular pay-scale and regularization of his service, claiming he had worked for the Corporation for three years. The Corporation's position was that he had actually been supplied by a private security/manpower contractor, that there was no employer-employee relationship between them, and that no regular sanctioned post of Computer Operator even existed. While that writ petition was still pending, the High Court passed an interim order restraining the Corporation from engaging a new contractor's staff in place of the respondent. The Corporation appealed to the Supreme Court against this interim order.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court's interim order was passed without assigning any reasons at all, and that it failed to engage with the Corporation's specific case that there was no sanctioned post and no direct employment relationship with the respondent. Finding this to be a "grave error," the Court quashed and set aside the interim order restraining the Corporation from hiring replacement contractual staff. It expressly declined to comment on the merits of the underlying regularization dispute, which remains pending before the High Court for decision.

Lesson Learnt

An interim order restraining a party's actions, especially in a service dispute, must be backed by at least some reasons engaging with the opposing side's case; a reasoned challenge to a bare, unreasoned interim order can succeed even while the main underlying case is still being decided elsewhere.

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

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