In Brief
The Supreme Court suo moto recalled its judgment of 7 January 2019 allowing a civil appeal because the original Bench had not been informed of a critical prior judgment and subsequent statutory amendment. Parliament had amended the definition of "employee" under the Payment of Gratuity Act 1972 (by Act 47 of 2009) with retrospective effect from 1997, a change made directly in response to the earlier Supreme Court judgment on which the appeal relied. The Court found this oversight constituted material error and stayed the judgment pending reconsideration by an appropriate Bench.
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