The Tribunal Made Them Permanent Too Early. They Are Still Permanent.
Nine contract workers won regularisation from the day they completed 240 days of service. The company challenged it. The High Court kept the regularisation and moved the date.
The Court held that the benefit of regularisation cannot be denied to the nine workers, but that the direction making them permanent from the date they completed 240 days deserves to be set aside. Instead they are to be treated as in regular service from the date they completed 10 years from their initial engagement, with consequential benefits within eight weeks.
- The entitlement survived; only its start date moved. The company won on the date and lost on the principle.
- Ten years from initial engagement is the line the Court drew.
- It is not retrospective. On ten years' service the benefit falls in 2011 or later — after the Reference was made.
- Eight weeks for consequential benefits to follow.
- Court
- High Court of Judicature at Bombay
- Citation
- Writ Petition No. 13673 of 2025
- Case
- Writ Petition No. 13673 of 2025
- Decided
- 9 September 2026
- Outcome
- Writ petition partly allowed; award modified to regularisation after ten years
What the Tribunal had ordered
The Central Government Industrial Tribunal directed that the nine workers be made permanent from the date each completed 240 days of service.
The employer challenged that award.
What the Court kept, and what it changed
On ten years of service, the benefit of regularisation would enure to the workers on or after 2011 — that is, after the Reference was made. In that sense, regularisation would not be retrospective.
Considering that position, the benefit of regularisation cannot be denied to the nine workers.
But the direction making them permanent from the date of completion of 240 days of service deserves to be set aside. Instead, they are to be treated as in regular service from the date they completed ten years of service from their initial engagement.
The order
The award was modified by directing that the nine workers be treated as in regular service with effect from the date of completion of ten years of service from their initial engagements.
Consequential benefits are to be granted within eight weeks. The writ petition was partly allowed, with no order as to costs.
Who argued it
Appearances as recorded in the judgment of the Court.
Frequently asked
Does 240 days of service make a contract worker permanent?
Not from that date, on this judgment. The Court moved the start of regular service to the completion of ten years.
Did the workers lose?
No. The Court held regularisation could not be denied to them; only the date was changed.
Arguing about the date regularisation begins
- Separate entitlement from its start date; they are argued differently and can be decided differently.
- Work out when each worker crossed the threshold, individually — the direction runs from each person's own date.
- Meet the retrospectivity objection by showing when the benefit actually falls due against the date of the reference.
- Ask for a deadline on consequential benefits, or the order sits unimplemented.
Source. High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Writ Petition No. 13673 of 2025, decided 9 September 2026 by . This explainer is written from the judgment text as reported.
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