In Brief
Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. employed 32 workers via a contractor from 1984–1994 to handle coal transportation. A settlement in 1997 regularized 19 workers as permanent, deeming their work (bunker operations) permanent and perennial, but excluded 13 others as performing casual work. The Government referred the entire dispute to an Industrial Tribunal, which found all 32 workers performed substantially identical permanent work and directed regularization of the remaining 13. The Supreme Court upheld this decision, holding that the Tribunal's jurisdiction was not barred by the partial settlement and that workers performing identical permanent work cannot be arbitrarily excluded. The Court awarded backwages from the Tribunal's decision date, noting wrongful denial of regularization entitled the workers to consequential relief.
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