SC Orders Payment of Rs 650 Cr Dues to Tea Garden Workers

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ordered the payment of the dues worth Rs 650 Cr to 28556 tea garden workers of the state of Assam. These workers are distributed over 25 tea gardens in the state including 15 owned by the Assam Tea Company Limited which is controlled by the Government of Assam.

A Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar accepted the report regarding the same from Retired Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre. The Justice Sapre Committee was constituted on January 10 2020, to ensure the payment of all dues after proper calculation. The committee had concluded that approximately Rs 414.7 is pending for the 28556 tea garden workers in 25 tea gardens of the state. An additional Rs 230.7 Cr is payable for provident funds of these employees for this time.

"We accept the report submitted by the committee consisting of Justice Sapre so far as the amount payable to workers, public staff and sub-staff of the tea gardens run by ATCL of the Assam government and private tea gardens in the state of Assam. We direct that the amount payable as per the committee's report be paid to the concerned staff within the time stipulated by the committee and on due proper identification", mentioned the bench.

Advocate Sanjit Kumar appearing for the state of Assam objected to the report and the amount being mentioned as per the 7th pay commission recommendation. The committee also mentioned that the pending dues have to be calculated as per the 7th Pay Commission for the employees of the tea gardens.

In 2020, the Supreme Court directed four states of India to make an interim payment of approximately Rs. 127 crores to tea garden workers whose legal dues were not cleared for more than 15 years. The Supreme Court had directed the States of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal to make the payments in the contempt petition.

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