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Union of India vs E. Krishna Rao

Not available · 2022 INSC 109Decided 28 Jan 2022
Not available
Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud · Sanjiv Khanna

Background

This is a follow-up order in a long-running dispute over arrears owed to All India Radio/Doordarshan's TV News Correspondents (TVNCs) and TV Assistant News Correspondents (TVANCs), stemming from a Supreme Court judgment dated 26 September 2018 (in a case involving one Sudhanshu Ranjan). The Union of India filed miscellaneous applications and contempt petitions seeking clarity on how to extend the benefit of that 2018 judgment to other similarly-placed employees who were not original parties to the case, and a related review petition on the same issue had been dismissed on 27 January 2022.

Decision Breakdown

The Court disposed of the applications and contempt petitions by recording the Union's undertaking that people who were parties to the earlier proceedings would get arrears on the same footing as Sudhanshu Ranjan, to be released by 15 March 2022. It further directed that benefits due to persons who were not parties to the earlier case would become payable from the date of the original 2018 judgment itself, without those persons needing to separately move the Court: this was extended to also cover TV Assistant News Editors (TVANEs), a similarly situated category, with disbursement by 30 June 2022.

Lesson Learnt

Once a court lays down a service-benefit principle for a category of government employees, the government can be directed to extend that benefit to the entire similarly-situated class on its own initiative, rather than forcing every individual employee to litigate separately to claim the same right.

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

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