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State of Orissa & Anr. vs Orissa Khadi and Village Industries Board Karmachari Sangh & Anr. (Civil Appeal No. 6944 of 2015)

Civil Appeal · 2023 INSC 247Decided 17 Mar 2023
Civil Appeal No. 6944 of 2015
Dinesh Maheshwari · Sanjay Kumar

Background

Employees of the Orissa Khadi and Village Industries Board (a statutory body under the Orissa Khadi and Village Industries Board Act, 1955) sued for pension parity with State Government employees. A single judge of the Orissa High Court had directed the State to amend its Regulations to grant the Board's employees pension on par with government employees, and a Division Bench of the High Court upheld this direction (while calling it merely "advisory"). The State of Orissa appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that Regulation 52 of the Board's own 1960 Regulations expressly excluded such pensionary rights and that courts cannot compel the legislature/rule-making authority to amend rules.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that a writ of mandamus cannot be issued to compel the State Government to amend its regulations to confer a benefit (pension parity) where the existing rules expressly deny that benefit and have not been struck down as invalid. The Court found the Division Bench erred by converting what it itself called an "advisory" direction into a binding mandate on the State. It also rejected the plea to invoke Article 142 of the Constitution to grant pension parity, holding that Article 142 cannot be used to override existing statutory/regulatory provisions or to substitute sympathy for legal rights. The appeal was allowed, the High Court's orders were set aside, and the original writ petition of the Board employees was dismissed, with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

Courts cannot direct a government or rule-making body to legislate or amend its own regulations in a particular way merely because it would benefit a class of employees: the discretion to amend service rules ordinarily rests with the rule-making authority, not the judiciary, unless the existing rule is itself struck down as illegal.

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

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