Digital Goa, August 6 – Supreme Court has laid down a time-bound roadmap for the Goa government to regularise workers of the PWD Labour Supply Society, directing the State to frame a comprehensive regularisation scheme within four months and, if vacancies are insufficient, create supernumerary posts to absorb every eligible worker. Setting aside the Bombay High Court’s 2023 judgment, the apex court held that the State cannot deny regularisation to workers after benefiting from their services for decades on the basis of what it termed a self-created procedural defect. The court directed that all appellants be regularised in the posts assigned to them during the State’s 2013 categorisation exercise, under which they were granted temporary status. It ordered the Goa government to frame the regularisation scheme within four months, restricting its benefit to members of the PWD Labour Supply Society who were members when the writ petition was filed on February 9, 2021. Recognising that sanctioned vacancies may not be enough, the court ordered the State to create supernumerary posts on a one-to-one basis wherever required. The Apex Court further ruled that the workers would be deemed regularised with effect from February 9, 2021, entitling them to seniority, pension and other retiral benefits from that date. However, it denied arrears of pay and allowances for the period prior to the judgment.
