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U.P. Power Corporation Ltd. v. Satya Ram

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 339Decided 5 Mar 2025
Civil Appeal No. 3612 of 2025 (arising from SLP(C) No. 12310 of 2023)
Justice Sanjay Kumar · Justice Augustine George Masih

Background

Two daily-wage workers of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation, engaged in 1971 and 1973, were terminated from service in 1979. A 1995 Labour Court award held their termination illegal and directed that they be treated as continuing in service, entitled to salary and benefits. After being paid dues up to 2014 in 2016, they sought further wages for the period 2015 to 2018, claiming entitlement to continue working until 2023: a claim the Deputy Labour Commissioner accepted and the Allahabad High Court upheld.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court allowed the Corporation's appeal and set aside both the High Court's and the Labour Commissioner's orders. It reasoned that the workers, having joined service as adults in 1971 and 1973, would have already reached the retirement age of 60 by around 2013-2015, making their claim to have still been in service through 2018 (based on a claimed age of just 55 that year) mathematically implausible, since it would mean they joined service as children. Neither the Labour Commissioner nor the High Court had checked this basic arithmetic before granting the extra payment.

Lesson Learnt

Even claims backed by an earlier tribunal award must hold up to basic factual scrutiny, such as a person's likely age and statutory retirement date, before authorities grant further monetary relief; courts and quasi-judicial bodies cannot mechanically accept a claim without testing whether it is even chronologically possible.

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

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