JATIN RAJKONWAR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. A. Dasgupta, learned senior counsel, assisted by Ms. B. Das, learned counsel for the six writ petitioners and Mr. G. N. Sahewalla, learned senior counsel, assisted by Mr. M. Sahewalla, learned counsel for the respondent Nos. 2 & 3.

(2.) The petitioners have put to challenge the award dtd. 11/7/2019 passed by the Central Government Industrial Tribunal -cum- Labour Court, Guwahati in Reference Case No. 3/2016, wherein the learned Tribunal has dismissed the claim of the petitioners to be reinstated into service and regularized, on the ground that there was no employer-employee relationship between the petitioners and the respondent Nos. 2 & 3, i.e. ONGC.

(3.) The case of the petitioners is that the petitioners were engaged directly as Contract Labourers by the ONGC in the year 1985-1986 and later on they were engaged on contract basis through a contractor, i.e. Mr. T.R. Phukan. The engagement of the petitioners on contract basis with Mr. T. R. Phukan, on a later date, was only a paper/sham engagement, which sought to camouflage the fact that the direct engagement between the petitioners and the ONGC still remained. The petitioners were thereafter disengaged by the ONGC in the year 1995/1996.