POOR WORKER WINS CASE FOR FULL BACK WAGES AFTER 21 YRS OF LEGAL BATTLE

In a landmark judgment, the Delhi High Court (Mukta Gupta J) awarded full back wages to Ms. Asha Verma against Ceat Limited holding that it was an ideal case where the workman was entitled to full wages till the date of her superannuation. Ms. Asha Verma through her counsel Mr. Anuj Agarwal had challenged the Award of the Labour Court whereby though her termination was held to be illegal but she was granted a lump sum compensation of Rs.1.75 lakhs instead of reinstatement and back wages. Ms. Verma had rendered 24 years of service with the Ceat Limited and had remained unemployed after her service was terminated at the age of 45 years. During the pendency of her case before the Labour Court, she attained the age of superannuation. The trial lasted for more than 17 years for no fault of her. The Labour Court came to the conclusion that if the management had terminated her services on the ground of continuous absence from the duty, the management ought to have given an opportunity to the workman to explain her absence from duty and a domestic enquiry should have been conducted by the management prior to termination of her services. Agreeing with the arguments of Advocate Anuj Agarwal that the workman Ms. Verma was entitled to full back wages, the High Court on 05.12.2012 (W.P. © No. 7802 of 2008) directed the Ceat Limited to pay to Ms. Verma within 8 weeks full back wages from the date of termination of her services till date of superannuation i.e., from 16 August 1991 to 27 November 2007.