Ushaben Joshi vs. Union of India
Background
Ushaben Joshi was engaged as a "water woman" (a contingency/casual worker) in a Post Office in Gujarat in February 1986. After serving continuously for over 30 years, she repeatedly sought regularisation of her service into a permanent Group 'D' post, but her applications were rejected by the postal department, the Central Administrative Tribunal, and the Gujarat High Court, on the ground that she only worked four hours a day as a contingency worker. She pointed out that another woman, Smt. K.M. Vaghela, who joined the same office years later (in 1991) in a similar contingency role, had already been regularised by the department.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court found that the department's own record showed Smt. Vaghela's regularisation was an independent departmental decision (not one it was compelled to make by any tribunal order), and the department could not show that her duties or working hours differed from the appellant's in any way. Since a person who joined the service years after the appellant had been given the benefit of regularisation while the appellant, who had served far longer, was denied it, the Court held this amounted to unjustified discrimination between two similarly situated employees. The Court set aside the orders of the Tribunal and High Court and directed the department to regularise Ushaben Joshi on the same terms as Smt. Vaghela, with the regularisation to take effect from the date Smt. Vaghela was regularised, along with all consequential benefits, within three months.
Lesson Learnt
An employer cannot deny a long-serving worker a benefit (such as job regularisation) that it has already granted to a similarly placed but more recently joined colleague performing the same duties, doing so violates the constitutional guarantee of equal treatment, and courts will step in to correct such discrimination.