CHIEF SOIL CONSERVATOR PUNJAB vs GURMAIL SINGH

The Supreme Court upheld the Labour Court's award under Section 10(1)(c) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, which reinstated the workman with 50% back wages, finding that the management failed to prove that the workman had not completed 240 days of work in the preceding 12 months as required under Section 25F of the Act. The Court emphasized that the onus of proof lay with the management to establish the workman's intermittent employment and that the absence of evidence regarding the department's status as an 'industry' further supported the Labour Court's decision. The appeal against the High Court's dismissal of the writ petition was therefore dismissed, affirming the Labour Court's findings.