In Brief
In this suo moto rehearing, the Supreme Court set aside its own earlier judgment allowing a Civil Appeal relating to the definition of 'employee' under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972. The Court discovered that its prior judgment had relied on an earlier precedent that triggered a parliamentary amendment (Act No. 47 of 2009) to the definition, made retrospectively effective from 1997. Since this material statutory change was not brought to the original Bench's notice and directly affected the case's legal foundation, the Court stayed its earlier judgment and remitted the matter for rehearing with a proper Bench to reconsider the appeal in light of the amended statute."
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