Supreme Court Appoints Former Madras HC Chief Justice To Oversee Workmen Claims, PF Dues & Asset Valuation In Jaipur Udyog Case
The case concerned a decades-long non-payment of dues to workers of a sick industrial company.
Justice Rajesh Bindal, Justice Vijay Bishnoi, Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has appointed Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava, former Chief Justice of the Madras High Court as an independent Administrator to supervise verification of workmen’s claims, coordinate provident fund computations, and oversee valuation of assets and liabilities in the long-pending Jaipur Udyog litigation, highlighting the need for institutional oversight in complex labour recovery proceedings.
The Court vested the Administrator with wide-ranging powers to coordinate with Court Commissioners, engage experts, requisition official records, and manage escrow funds to facilitate timely and transparent disbursal of dues to workers of Jaipur Udyog Ltd. (JUL), whose claims have remained unresolved for decades.
Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Vijay Bishnoi observed, “…to oversee work of the Court Commissioners appointed for verification of the claims of the workmen and also coordinate with the PF authorities for calculation of PF dues. We appoint Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava, former Chief Justice of Madras High Court as Administrator. He can engage staff as per requirement and exigency of the assigned tasks. He shall also have the power to call for copies of relevant records from government offices for valuation of assets and liabilities...”.
Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves appeared for the petitioner and Senior Advocates Gopal Sahankarnarayana, Balbir Singh, Arun Kathpalia, Vikas Singh, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Dhruv Mehta, Santosh Paul appeared for the respondents.
In brief, the case arises from a prolonged non-payment of wages and statutory dues to workers of JUL and its units, which had been declared a sick company and subjected to failed rehabilitation attempts.
Jaipur Udyog Ltd. (JUL) was declared a sick industrial company by the BIFR on September 17, 1987 under the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985. A rehabilitation scheme proposed by Gannon Dunkerley & Co. Ltd. (GDCL) was sanctioned on April 21, 1992 but failed to revive the company. After prolonged non-implementation, the BIFR, by order dated November 24, 2000, recommended winding up of JUL.
Subsequent proceedings before the AAIFR and High Courts did not yield resolution, meanwhile, workers’ dues remained unpaid for decades. During proceedings before the Supreme Court, Justice N.N. Mathur (Retd.) was appointed in 2007 to determine the principles for computation of dues, and an award was rendered on December 05, 2008. Later, on August 21, 2018, Justice Aftab Alam (Retd.) was appointed as mediator to facilitate quantification, who submitted reports on 31.03.2019 and January 31, 2021 assessing substantial dues payable to workmen.
With the repeal of SICA on December 01, 2016 and failure of JUL to initiate proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the earlier recommendation for winding up attained finality, subject to approval by the Rajasthan High Court. Despite partial settlements, including a Court-recognised settlement dated July 29, 2019 for the Kanpur unit, a significant portion of dues remained unpaid.
In the course of the proceedings, allegations also arose regarding unauthorized sale of assets and changes in shareholding by GDCL. Given the prolonged pendency, multiplicity of claims, and need for coordinated verification and disbursal, the Court proceeded to appoint an independent Administrator to oversee the process of verification, PF computation, and asset valuation.
Accordingly, the Court conferred authority upon the Administrator to oversee the work of Court Commissioners engaged in verification of claims, coordinate with provident fund authorities for computation of statutory dues, and call for records from government offices for accurate valuation of assets and liabilities. The Administrator was also permitted to engage professionals and experts as required.
To facilitate the process, the Court directed that ₹50 lakhs be transferred from an existing deposit into an escrow account in the name of JUL, with the Administrator as authorised signatory. The Administrator is to receive a monthly honorarium of ₹2 lakhs, along with an additional ₹2 lakhs per month for staffing, expert assistance, and incidental expenses, with liberty to seek further funds from the Court if necessary. The Registry was directed to supply complete digital records of the proceedings to aid the exercise.
“…we may make it clear that how the balance assets or surplus after clearance of the dues of the workmen will be used is to be decided by this Court, later on, when entire exercise is completed. For the purpose of compliance, a report in that regard be filed before this Court within six months”, the Bench directed.
The Court, thus, placed the execution phase of its directions under continuous judicially supervised administration, signalling a shift from adjudication to structured enforcement aimed at securing long-delayed entitlements of Jaipur Udyog workmen.
Cause Title: Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, U.P. & Anr. v. State Of U.P. & Others [Neutral Citation: 2026 INSC 364]
Appearances:
Petitioners: Colin Gonsalves, Sr. Adv., Hetvi Patel, Manik Gupta, Puja Sharma, Satya Mitra, AOR, Barun Kumar Sinha, Pratibha Sinha, Sneh Vardhan, Pankaj Kumar Shukla, Vaibhav Singh, Rakesh Mudgal, Chhal Bihari Singh, Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, AOR, Advocates.
Respondents: Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv., Dhruv Mehta, Sr. Adv., Ruby Singh Ahuja, Meenakshi Grover, Vishal Singh, Akanksha Thapa, Kritika Sachdeva, Megha Dugar, Anupama Dhurve, Amit Bhandari, M/S. Karanjawala & Co., AOR, Vikas Singh, Sr. Adv., Vijayendra Pratap Singh, Vatsala Rai, Tanmay Sharma, Shubhangni Jain, Mitali Umat, Abhay Pratap Singh, AOR, Santosh Paul, Sr. Adv., Snehasish Mukherjee, AOR, Maneesh, Balbir Singh, Sr. Adv., Arun Kathpalia, Sr. Adv., Abhijnan Jha, AOR, Simran Bhat, Shivam Jain, Shiv Mangal Sharma, A.A.G., Sonali Gaur, Nidhi Jaswal, AOR, Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, AOR, Barun Kumar Sinha, Pratibha Sinha, Sneh Vardhan, Rakesh Mudgal, Pankaj Kumar Shukla, Vaibhav Singh, Chhal Bihari Singh, Arun K. Sinha, AOR, Ansar Ahmad Chaudhary, AOR, Tulika Mukherjee, AOR, Anuvrat Sharma, AOR, Chitrangda Rastravara, AOR, Abhijeet Singh, Anirudh Singh, Aishwary Mishra, Dhananjai Shekhwat, Yuvraj Singh, Pearl Pundir, Dashrath Singh, Shashwat Parihar, AOR, Dhruva Vig, Indira Bhakar, Kabir Singh, Prashant Rawat, AOR, Shashwat Anand, AOR, Prabhat Ranjan Raj, Kanishk Khetan, Rishabh Kumar, Vishrut Jain, Mayank Rajan Joshi, Abdul Qadir Abbasi, AOR, Aditya Kumar, Yash Kotak, Ila Nath, Radhika Singh, Sumeer Sodhi, AOR, Girish Shankar, Megha Karnwal, AOR, Awanitika, Aaditya Thorat, Muktesh Bajpai