Blog

The Supreme Court has clearly recognised the fact that reinstatement is not an automatic consequence of wrongful termination, especially when the Workman has during the pendency of litigation, not performed any services with the Management as upheld by the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi through the learned bench led by Justice Prathiba M. Singh in the case of M/S G4s Secure Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. and Ors. v. Sh. Sanjeev Pawar and Ors. (W.P.(C) 10953/2020)

The brief background of the petition is that an incident had occurred in June, 2011 due to which a show cause notice was issued by the Management to the Workmen. To the said show cause notice, replies were filed by the Workmen, and thereafter, on 9th June, 2011, the Management had terminated the services of the Workmen. This termination was challenged before the Labour Court by way of a claim petition that was filed by the Workmen. In the claim petition before the Labour Court, a declaration was sought by the Workmen that the termination was illegal and compensation for unemployment, earned wages along with other legal entitlements was also sought. The Management filed its defence to these claim petitions and evidence was also recorded. The case of the Management in their written statement was that the Workmen were habitual drunkards and had involved themselves in physical fights with the guards and the staff. They had also allegedly misbehaved with the seniors. On behalf of the Management, evidence was led by the Authorized Representative. It was claimed by the Management that one Mr. V.K. Pandey was threatened and assaulted and a complaint was also lodged with the police station. It was pursuant to the said complaint that the termination letter was issued. The Labour Court, in the impugned judgement, observed that the Management did not place on record any documents to show that threat was extended to Mr. V.K. Pandey. It is this Award that has been challenged by the Management.

After the perusal of the facts and arguments, the Hon’ble Court held, “This Court is of the opinion that the relief of lump sum compensation may be awarded to the Workmen in the present cases. Vide order dated 4 th January 2021, a sum of Rs.2 Lakhs was already directed to be deposited by the Management, which has now earned interest. Further, in each of the cases, considering that the Workmen have been litigating since 2011 and it has taken more than ten years for the dispute to reach its conclusion, a consolidated sum of Rs. 75,000/- is awarded as litigation expenses along with further enhancement of compensation, in favour of each of the Workmen. The present petitions are disposed of in the above terms. All pending applications are also disposed of.”

Click here to read the Judgment

Judgment reviewed by Vandana Ragwani