Delhi High Court Sets Aside Industrial Tribunal's Order Increasing Retirement Age Of Indian Express Workers From 58 To 60 Yrs With Effect From 2009

The Delhi High Court has set aside the order passed by an Industrial Tribunal last year increasing the age of retirement or superannuation of the workers of The Indian Express from 58 years to 60 years with effect from October 15, 2009, with all consequential benefits.

Justice Anish Dayal remanded the matter back to the Industrial Tribunal for fresh adjudication, after considering all materials which may be placed by the parties in detail to be examined with a fresh nuanced outlook and robust reasoning.

The court observed that the Industrial Tribunal ignored all the established parameters for revising the service conditions or wages of an establishment.

“Therefore, this Court is of the opinion that even while the Industrial Tribunal was correct in the exercise of its jurisdiction, it did not exercise its jurisdiction in the proper manner, considered irrelevant materials, ignored or did not requisition relevant materials, made an irrational, fragile, perfunctory and cursory assessment in order to reach its conclusion,” the court said.

Justice Dayal disposed of the plea moved by the Indian Express Private Limited challenging the award passed by the Industrial Tribunal on July 31 last year.

Apart from increasing the age of retirement or superannuation of the workers to 60 years, the Tribunal had further directed the newspaper to implement the same within 60 days of passing of the impugned award, failing which they were liable to pay interest at the rate of 8% per annum from the date of accrual till the date of final payment.

In September last year, the court had directed, as a pro-tem arrangement, that subject to any orders, the two workmen who were retiring that month would be allowed to continue to discharge their duties of their respective posts.

Justice Dayal held that an Industrial Tribunal reached a finding that the retirement age ought to be increased merely on extremely slim and lightweight reasons and does not sit in an easy arm-chair for such assessment.

“Increase in retirement age has a vast and far-reaching impact on the establishment and the manner in which it runs its own business and plans for future. Increasing the retirement age across all cadres of employees in a large establishment involves a very high economic impact and therefore, it is necessary to analyze it threadbare, assess comprehensively on various relevant parameters,” the court said.

It added that the impugned order was passed by the Industrial Tribunal simply by relying merely on the basis that the retirement age in some other newspapers was extendable to 60 years and that the same would benefit the establishment, since they won't have to pay wages to new recruits to do the same work.

The court observed that the assessment was flawed, inadequate, insufficient and ignored the well-established law relating to the assessment of service conditions in industrial establishments.

“There is a clear difference between a fixed retirement age and the option of extending the same by 2 years based on the health, performance, and other factors relating to the employee. Importantly it is noted, that existing Model Standing Order still defines the age of superannuation at 58 years,” the court said.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. N.B. Joshi, Advocate with Mr. Sahil, Advocate

Counsel for Respondents: Mr. Colin Gonsalves, Sr. Advocate with Ms. Kawal Preet Kaur, Advocates; Mr. Avishkar Singhvi, Mr. Vivek Kr. Singh and Mr. Naved Ahmed, Advocates for R-2

Title: THE INDIAN EXPRESS P LTD v. THE INDIAN EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS WORKERS UNION REGD AND ANR

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 64

Click Here To Read Order