DISTRICT FOOD AND SUPPLIES CONTROLLER Vs. PREM CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The order under challenge is a direction by a Controlling Authority under the Payment of Gratuity Act for calculation of gratuity including the period when a workman had not worked by virtue of an order of termination operating against him. This order of termination, which was purported to have been issued on February 26, 1983, was set aside by the Labour Court by an award directing reinstatement with continuity of service, but without back wages. The reinstatement was effected on August 11, 1993. It is an admitted case that he was put on regular pay scales and served in the establishment till he was superannuated on December 31, 1998.

(2.) It was a case of a workman, who had been employed as a Chowkidar on daily wages from December 7, 1979 to February 26, 1983 with breaks in between, when the termination was made on February 26, 1983. It became a point of contention and subject of a reference to a Labour Court which in turn resulted in a direction for reinstatement referred to above. The Controlling Authority found for the purpose of computation of gratuity the period when the person had been illegally terminated to also avail for reckoning the period of continuous service and for calculating the amount of gratuity payable to the workman.

(3.) The learned counsel appearing for the management, Ms. Monica Chhibbar Sharma, refers me to the definition in Section 2-A(1) of the Payment of Gratuity Act, which reads as follows: