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The Secretary, Public Works Department & Ors. vs. Tukaram Pandurang Saraf & Ors.

Not available · 2024 INSC 703Decided 19 Sept 2024
Not available
Justice Sandeep Mehta · Justice R. Mahadevan

Background

A group of long-serving employees (peons and gardeners, called "Mailmujar" and "Mali") working under the Public Works Department in Maharashtra were moved onto a "Converted Temporary Establishment" in 2004, which brought them within the scope of the 1967 Kalelkar Award: a settlement fixing service conditions for such workers. The employees claimed the Award entitled them to paid holidays on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of each month, and one-and-a-half times' salary if made to work on those days. The department refused, relying on a 1996 government circular, but the Industrial Court and then the Bombay High Court both ruled in the employees' favour, prompting the department's appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the 1996 circular and found it was expressly limited to certain specific cases pending or disposed of before the Industrial Court in Bombay, and said nothing about employees, like these, who were shifted to the Converted Temporary Establishment under the Kalelkar Award. The Award itself explicitly entitled all employees except daily-wage workers to these Saturday-holiday and overtime benefits. Since the department's reliance on the circular to deny the benefits did not hold up, the Court found no fault in the concurrent findings of the Industrial Court and High Court, dismissed the department's appeal, and directed the department to comply with the earlier order within eight weeks.

Lesson Learnt

A government department cannot use a narrowly-worded administrative circular meant for other specific cases to deny employees benefits that are clearly and explicitly guaranteed to them under a binding service-conditions award.

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

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