Sc Dismisses Plea On Hyd Allwyn Staff Absorption

The Supreme Court today dismissed the appeals of the Andhra Pradesh government against the absorption of 1,486 employees of Hyderabad Allwyn Ltd under a rehabilitation scheme proposed by the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR).

Earlier, an understanding had been reached between Voltas Ltd, the state government and Allwyn for the deployment of the employees elsewhere. The government had gone ahead with the scheme of absorption in its various departments and state-level public enterprises.

However, a high power committee appointed by the government meanwhile reported to it that absorption of Allwyn staff would create unrest among the government employees and endless litigation and the there was no provision in the rules to absorb surplus employees of public sector undertakings in government service.

 

Therefore it recommended to the government not to absorb the surplus employees. Following this, the government issued a notification abolishing all surplus posts and offering rehabilitation payments.

The government also issued an ordinance, which was later passed as a legislation, cancelling all its orders absorbing the employees in public service and state undertakings. This law was challenged in the high court by the employees.

The high court allowed the petitions and ruled that the legislation and the government orders would not affect the rights of the parties protected under the BIFR scheme. It said that a BIFR scheme could not be defeated by a legislation.

On appeal, the Supreme Court bench consisting of Justice Rajendra Babu and Justice D P Mohapatra stated that the process of absorption was complete in this case and therefore the employees belonged to the government. Reports of various committees had no relevance in this context, the Supreme Court said, upholding the high court judgment.