Government of NCT of Delhi and Ors. v. Sunil Kumar and Ors.
Case brief
What is this about?
W.P.(C) 5756/2025, GNCTD writ petition dismissed by Delhi High Court on 02.05.2025 (Navin Chawla, J. oral, with Renu Bhatnagar, J.). Subject: entitlement to payment/back wages for non-working interregnum between contract termination dated 31.07.2014 and re-engagement orders dated 04.10.2016 of contractual Craft Instructors; CAT Principal Bench order dated 05.08.2024 allowing O.A. of Sunil Kumar & Ors. upheld. Key principle: 'no pay no work' inapplicable where employee prevented by employer from performing duties; absence not attributable to employees. Cases: relied_on — State of U.P. v. Dayanand Chakrawarty (2013) 7 SCC 595; distinguished — Sushil Kumar Tripathi v. Jagadguru Ram Bhadracharya Handicapped University (2022) 8 SCC 760; noted (relied on by Tribunal) — Bhuvnesh Kumar Dwivedi v. Hindalco Industries (2014) 11 SCC 85; inner references in quoted SC passage — Harwindra Kumar (2005) 13 SCC 300; Radhey Shyam Gautam (2007) 11 SCC 507; U.P. Jal Nigam v. Jaswant Singh (2006) 11 SCC 464. Procedural trail: termination 31.07.2014; Tribunal interim stay 08.08.2014; suspension by this Court 10.11.2014 in WP(C) 7636/2014 (Rakesh Kumar); writ disposed 25.03.2015; Tribunal allowed O.As 25.02.2016 (set aside terminations, re-engage, frame regularization policy); re-engagement orders 04.10.2016; representations for period-as-on-duty benefits; fresh O.As led to impugned order. Outcome: petition found without merit and disposed of; no monetary quantum specified in judgment; no statute cited.