Insurance Caselaws

The Supreme Court denies LIC's request to absorb 11,000 part-time employees, citing "backdoor entries as an anachronism to public service."

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Case Title: Ranbir Singh versus SK Roy, Chairman Life Insurance Corporation and Another

Summary

The Supreme Court has rejected a four-decade-old dispute regarding the regularization of part-time employees at the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). The Supreme Court ruled that mass assimilation of over 11,000 employees without a recruitment process is not permissible for a public employer, as it must adhere to the principles of equal opportunity as outlined in Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. The dispute concerned the regularization claims of personnel who had been employed from 20 May 1985 to 4 March 1991.

The Supreme Court approved the compromise in the 1989 case LIC v. Their Workmen and adopted the LIC-proposed scheme in the E Prabhavathy case in 1992. The court found that the Dogra Report, which supported workers' claims, inadequately verified the employment status of only Class III and Class IV employees who had accumulated a minimum of 85 and 70 days of work experience, respectively, over a span of two and three years. The court mandated a fresh verification of the claims made by employees who claimed to have worked for Class IV for a minimum of 85 days over a two-year period or Class III for a minimum of two years and 70 days over a three-year period.

About the case