Supreme Court overturns Uttarakhand HC judgement on regularisation of construction workers
19 March 2019: The Supreme Court of India has overturned an order of the Uttarakhand High Court which devised a scheme for regularisation of construction workers employed by the Border Roads Organisation and its allied organisation the General Reserve Engineering Forces.
A division bench of the Uttarakhand High Court had cancelled Centre’s appeal in December 2016 and imposed a fine of ₹50,000 for depriving contract workers of pay and perks at par with their Group D counterparts. It had further directed the Centre to devise a scheme for regularisation of workers within three months.
The Supreme Court has overturned the order stating that the power to frame a scheme lies only with the legislature. The judiciary can only advice the legislature to form a scheme, not frame the scheme itself.
Supreme Court cancels anganwadi contacts of large-scale private food suppliers
11 March 2019: The Apex Court rapped the Women and Child Development department of Maharashtra for issuing tenders with “arbitrarily fixed” terms and conditions for production and supply of take-home rations under the Centre’s Integrated Child Development Scheme. The terms and conditions made it impossible for small-scale mahila bachatgats or women’s self-help groups to participate in the Scheme.
The Supreme Court has cancelled contracts worth ₹6300 crores awarded to three large-scale private suppliers and ordered the Maharashtra government to stop the supply of ICDS rations under the current system, issue fresh tenders within four weeks, and design an alternate system of ration-supply for the interim period.
Supreme Court orders inclusion of all allowances for calculation of Provident Fund Contribution
6 March 2019: The Supreme Court in its recent judgement has reiterated that all allowances which are paid universally and are not earned by the worker with respect to overtime or increased productivity should be included in calculating Provident Fund contributions.
Currently, only Basic Wage and Dearness allowance are considered calculating PF contribution. The Judgement orders inclusion of all other allowances such as special allowances, conveyance allowance, medical allowance, etc.
