Govt can't be forced to pay salaries of defunct units: SC

The Supreme Court has ruled that the government cannot be compelled to provide salaries to employees of defunct public companies as the same cannot be claimed as a matter of right.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the government cannot be compelled to provide salaries to employees of defunct public companies as the same cannot be claimed as a matter of right.

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If courts start giving directions to the government on such pleas it would lead to a situation where every disadvantaged section of the society would start knocking the doors of the court to obtain the relief, a bench of Justices R V Raveendran and Markandeya Katju said.

The apex court passed the ruling while quashing a Gauwhati High Court judgement which directed the Assam government to provide grant-in-aid to Cachar and Karimganj District Milk Producers' Cooperative Union Limited (CAMUL) to pay salaries to the employees after the society folded up its operations in 1994.

The state government moved the apex court contending that the coopertive society was not a government department and hence it cannot be compelled to pay salaries to the employees.

The Barak Upatyaka D.U.Karmachari Sanstha (union) representing the society took the plea that the recruitment board of the organisation comprised representatives of the state and was headed by a managing director appointed by the state government and was for over a year getting aid from it.