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The State of Gujarat v. PWD and Forest Employees Union & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 213Decided 15 Feb 2019
Civil Appeal Nos. 1684-1686 of 2019
Justice A.K. Sikri · Justice S. Abdul Nazeer · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

Daily-wage workers of Gujarat's Forest Department, represented by their union, had long fought for the benefits given to other daily wagers under a 1988 Government Resolution, including regularisation and pension. A 2013 Supreme Court judgment had already directed the State to extend specific benefits to these workers after they completed a set number of years of service. When the State allegedly failed to fully implement that judgment, the Union initiated contempt proceedings in the Gujarat High Court, which ruled against the State; the State then appealed to the Supreme Court, raising several objections about how the 2013 judgment should be interpreted and implemented.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court went through the State's five specific objections to how the earlier 2013 judgment's benefits should be computed and applied. It agreed with the State that regularised daily wagers must be fitted into the official statutory pay scales (not given pay exceeding permanently appointed staff), that only years with 240+ days of actual service count toward eligibility, and that the earlier judgment's reference to casual leave was the result of a translation error: workers are entitled to 12 days casual leave plus 2 days voluntary leave, same as regular employees, not 14 days in addition. On pension/provident fund, the Court fixed 1 April 2005 as a cut-off: those who attained regular status before that date get the old GPF/pension scheme, and those after get the new CPF/NPS scheme. The High Court's judgment was modified accordingly, and the State was directed to work out and pay the benefits within two months.

Lesson Learnt

When government daily-wage workers are regularised, their benefits must be worked out strictly per the applicable statutory pay rules and the actual terms of the court order: ambiguities (like a translation error inflating leave entitlement) get corrected, and parity with permanent staff cannot be stretched beyond what the rules allow.

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

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