IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CIVIL APPEAL NO. 5079 OF 2015
(Arising out of S.L.P. (Civil) No. 36226/2011)
FOOD CORPORATION OF INDIA ....Appellant
Versus
SANKAR GHOSH & ORS. ..Respondents
J U D G M E N T
R. BANUMATHI, J.
Leave granted.
2. This appeal has been filed by the appellant-Food Corporation of
India challenging the judgment and order dated 16.09.2011 of the High Court
of Calcutta in F.M.A. No.1172 of 2010, in and by which, direction has been
given to the appellant-Corporation to consider the claim of respondent
Nos.1 to 12 for regularization of their services by treating them as
casual employees appointed in an irregular manner and granting liberty to
the appellant-Corporation to absorb the said respondents in any available
vacant posts.
3. Brief facts of the case are that the Food Corporation of India
(FCI) awarded contract to the Food Handling Co-operative Society
in the year 1982 for execution of various operational works in its depots
at C.S.D. Dubguri and Siliguri. The Food Handling Co-operative Society
executed the works for two years from 10.11.1982 to 09.11.1984 and then
continued to work up to 30.04.1995. The respondents took part in such
operational works as ‘Analyser’, ‘Picker’ and ‘Dusting Operators’ from
01.01.1983. There was a dispute with regard to mode of engagement of
respondents in the aforesaid posts. According to the FCI, the respondents
worked under the above contractor. However, respondents claimed that they
were engaged directly by FCI as casual workers. The respondents raised an
industrial dispute and the same was referred to Central Government
Industrial Tribunal, Calcutta by the Government of India, Ministry of
Labour on 15.09.1994. The Central Government Industrial Tribunal at
Calcutta in Reference No.31/1994 vide its award dated 06.10.1997 directed
FCI to regularize the respondents in the post of Dusting Operators with
effect from 09.01.1983 on the basis of doctrine of ‘equal pay for equal
work’. Aggrieved by the same, the appellant filed writ petition being Writ
Petition No.16519(W)/98 challenging the said award dated 06.10.1997 and the
same was dismissed by the single Judge of the High Court of Calcutta vide
Order dated 20.11.1998. Being aggrieved, the appellant-FCI preferred appeal
being M.A.T. No.4130/1998. By an interim order dated 22.03.1999, the
Division Bench of the High Court directed the appellant-Corporation to
engage the respondents subject to the result of the appeal in M.A.T.
No.4130/1998. On 23.04.2004, the appeal was allowed and the impugned award
dated 6.10.1997 was set aside. Consequent thereupon, the services of the
respondents were disengaged by FCI on and from 18.05.2004.
4. Contention of the appellant-Corporation is that the respondents
are merely contractual labourers and were not engaged in accordance with
any of the provisions of the FCI Recruitment Rules 1971 and for the
aforesaid work, contract was given to the Labour Co-operative Society of
which respondents were members. Contention of the appellant-Corporation is
that in compliance with the interim order of the High Court dated
22.03.1999, appellant-Corporation had given appointment letters to the
respondents which were subject to the final order of the High Court in the
appeal and by final order dated 23.04.2004, the High Court allowed the
appeal and quashed the award of the tribunal and consequently the
respondents were disengaged with effect from 18.05.2004. Further,
contention of the appellant-Corporation is that the post of Dusting
Operator is not a direct recruitment post and is a promotional post to be
filled up in 100% by way of promotion and therefore there is no scope for
their regularization merely because of the fact that the respondents had
served for considerable time and the Division Bench erred in directing the
appellant-Corporation to consider the claim of the respondents.
5. Per contra, the respondents-workmen contentions are that they
had been appointed by the District Manager of FCI on 09.01.1983 on Class
III and IV posts of Dusting Operator, Picker and Analyser and were working
under the supervision and control of Food Corporation of India by
discharging their duties as a regular employees of the Corporation since
their appointment in the year 1983. The respondents have contended that
they are duly qualified and served the Corporation for more than ten years
without the intervention of the Court or the Tribunal and hence are
entitled to be regularized.
6. Upon consideration of the rival contentions, vide Order dated
03.11.2014, this Court directed the parties to furnish certain details.
The relevant extract of the said Order reads thus:-
“ … the petitioner Corporation’s case before the courts below was
that the respondent-workmen were members of the Food Handling Co-operative
Society. The case of the respondents was that they were working in the
godown of the FCI in different capacities such as Dusting Operators,
Pickers, Assistant Analysers and Analysers. The workmen also appear to
have produced material in the form of payment sheet for the period
01.04.1991 to 16.04.1991 before the Industrial Tribunal to demonstrate that
they were being paid their wages directly by the Assistant Manager (D) FCI.
Before us also the Corporation insists that the respondents had no privity
of contract with the Corporation and that they were at all material times
engaged by and working for the cooperative society mentioned above. The
Industrial Tribunal and the High Court have no doubt appraised the evidence
and recorded a finding that the respondents were working as casual
labourers with the appellant-Corporation but the material available on
record prima facie appears to have deficient to support any such finding.
Mr. Piyush K. Roy, learned counsel for the respondents fairly
conceded that the only evidence which appears to have been relied upon
before the Labour Court to establish a privity of contract between the
respondents and the Corporation is the alleged payment sheet for the period
01.04.1991 to 16.04.1991. In the circumstances it may be difficult to
sustain the findings recorded by the Industrial Tribunal and the High Court
that the respondents were indeed working as casual labourers with the
Corporation. That is especially so when the High Court has directed their
regularization as Dusting Operators which posts according to Mr. Roy
learned counsel appearing for the respondents is a promotional post to be
filled up by promotion out of those working as Pickers. In that view we
direct the appellant-Corporation to place on record the following: (i)
Rules that suggest appointment in the cadre of Dusting Operators is
permissible only by promotion out of Pickers and others working in the Food
Corporation; (ii) Material to suggest whether any payment was ever made by
the FCI directly to the respondents if so the period for which such
payments has been made; (iii) material to show as to when the respondents
were employed, by whom they were employed and when were their services
actually terminated. The above is necessary because the respondents do not
appear to be in active service of the Corporation for the past 10 years.
The respondent shall also simultaneously file the following
documents: (a) copies of engagement/ appointment order if any issued in
their favour, whether in the name of the appellant-Corporation or the
Food Handling Labour Co-operative Society; (b) material to show that they
were actually working as casual labourers with the Corporation and that
their presence/attendance was marked by the Corporation or by the
Corporation authorities; (c) Termination /Retrenchments order or any other
material shall also be filed by the respondents…….”
7. Pursuant to the above Order, appellant-Corporation has filed an
affidavit dated 24.12.2014 along with various annexures. Insofar as the
direction regarding the appointment in the cadre of Dusting Operators,
appellant-Corporation has referred to the provisions of Clause 1 of
Regulation 7 read with the table set out in Appendix 1 to the FCI Staff
Regulations 1971 that the post of Dusting Operator could be filled up 100%
by way of promotion and also referred to various provisos to Clause 9 of
the Regulation.
8. Per contra, the respondents rely upon Clause 7(3)(c)
of FCI Staff Regulations which provides for appointment in the Corporation
on a purely temporary basis. Further, clause 7(2)(c) empowers the Board
to relax any of the provisions of recruitment rules contained in Appendix
1. It has been contended that the said post of Dusting Operator can also be
filled up by direct recruitment in the event of non-availability of
suitable candidates for the said post. Respondents have also relied upon
Circular dated 06.05.1987 issued by FCI pursuant to the meeting of Board of
Directors dated 24.02.1987 thereby all casual labourers who had 90
days service on and before 02.05.1986 were proposed to be regularized
according to the classification against Class III and IV posts. Further,
according to the respondents, similar circular for regularization of casual
employees was issued on 09.09.1996 by the FCI and many other similarly
placed employees were regularized and only the case of the respondents was
ignored by FCI.
9. We do not propose to go into the merits of the rival
contentions raised by the parties in the additional affidavits and the
documents filed pursuant to this Court’s Order dated 03.11.2014. Without
expressing any opinion on the merits of the matter, we set aside the
impugned order of the High Court and remit the matter back to the High
Court for consideration of the matter afresh in the light of the fresh
material adduced by the parties. The Division Bench of the Calcutta High
Court shall afford an opportunity to both the parties and consider the
matter afresh in accordance with law.
10. With the above observations, the appeal is disposed of. No
order as to costs.
……………………….J.
(T.S. THAKUR)
……………………….J.
(R.K. AGRAWAL)
……………………….J.
(R. BANUMATHI)
New Delhi;
July 8, 2015