The Supreme Court has brought closure to a long-pending dispute concerning unpaid dues of workers engaged by five now-defunct State-owned corporations in the erstwhile State of Bihar, directing Bihar and Jharkhand to make a one-time payment of ₹1 lakh to each eligible daily-wage employee/workman. A Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta also directed the two States to pay simple interest at 12% per annum on delayed provident fund dues and 6% per annum on delayed salary, wages and other monetary entitlements, calculated from the date on which the respective amounts became payable until their actual disbursement.
The litigation traces its origins to the reorganisation of Bihar under the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000, following the creation of Jharkhand and the consequent dispute over liabilities relating to five inter-State corporations. The proceedings also followed the Supreme Court’s earlier consideration of the final report of a committee headed by former Justice Dinesh Maheshwari.
The Court has now dealt with the residual issues concerning identification of workers, claims of daily-wage employees and legal heirs, and interest on delayed statutory and service-related dues. It rejected the use of a uniform daily wage of ₹42.50 for calculating dues accruing after 1992, observing that the mere fact that workers were engaged on a daily-wage basis could not justify ignoring the passage of time and the wages applicable during the period of their service.
The Court was informed that, out of 2,274 verified employees/workers, 2,074 had already received their dues, while around 200 claims remained pending, principally because the claimants could not be traced or the requisite documentation and verification had not been completed. While bringing the general identification and verification exercise to an end, the Bench preserved the claims of untraceable workers and their legal heirs. Such claimants have been granted 12 months from the date of the judgment to approach the designated nodal officer with the necessary documents, following which their claims will be examined and any amount found payable will be released in accordance with the Court’s directions.
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