South Delhi Municipal Corporation v. Satish & Ors.
In the High Court of Delhi
WP(C) 7727/2019 and CM Appl. 41462, 42709/2021
Before Justice Prathiba M. Singh
Decided on November 30, 2021

Relevancy of the case: Directions for uploading orders and awards of the Labour Courts and the Central Government Industrial Tribunal within 48 hours

Statutes and Provisions Involved

• The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (Section 33)

Relevant Facts of the Case

• The South Delhi Municipal Corporation was obligated to pay the workers pecuniary benefits until April 30, 2019.
• The court passed an order on February 1, 2019, to direct the corporation to pay 60% of back wages and published the order on February 14, 2019.
• On July 15, 2019, the workers filed a writ petition for the non-payment of money. The corporation paid the amount of the order on July 18, 2019. Neither the corporation nor the workers disclosed this information for 2 years.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

• The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the corporation had already paid the order amount.
• Further, they brought to the court’s attention that copies of the awards were not made available until and unless the appropriate government published them. The Central Government Industrial Tribunal also did not upload the same.

Opinion of the Bench

• The Labour Court and the Central Government Industrial Tribunal must upload all their orders on their respective websites within 48 hours of being passed.

Final Decision

• The court passed directions to implement the same, listing the case on a further date.

Arnav Kaman, an undergraduate student at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab, prepared this case summary during his internship with The Cyber Blog India in January/February 2024.