Daily Wagers At Dharwad & Kalaburagi HC Benches To Be Paid Salary At Par With Regular Employees; Benefit Of General Holidays To Be Also Accorded To Them: Karnataka HC
The Karnataka High Court was considering a Public Interest Petition moved by the High Court Legal Services Committee.

The Karnataka High Court took note of a Memo filed by the State Government Authorities and observed that the benefit of general holidays is accorded to the class of daily wagers at Dharwad and Kalaburagi Benches of the High Court. The High Court also clarified that these daily wagers would continue to be paid the salary at par with regulars.
The Writ Petition before the High Court was filed under Articles 226 & 227 of the Constitution by the High Court Legal Services Committee praying to declare that the Group 'D' employees working on daily wages at the Dharwad and Gulbarga Benches of the High Court are entitled to the same pay as the regular Group 'D’ employees so employed, and issue consequential directions by way of mandamus to the first respondent and grant other necessary reliefs.
The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice N. V. Anjaria and Justice M.I.Arun said, “...the Court finds that since the substantial part of the grievance is taken care of by the Governmental authorities by granting the holidays and treating the daily wage employees at the said two Benches at par with the other employees, the present proceedings are not required to be continued.”
Advocate B V Nidhishree represented the Petitioner while AGA Niloufer Akbar represented the Respondent.
Factual Background
It was brought to the Court’s attention that Group 'D' employees employed to work in the High Court at the said two places where the Circuit Benches function, parity in remuneration was eluded for them. About 36 employees were working on the establishment of the benches, most of them were deputed to work at the residence of the Judges and they put in a reasonably long continuous satisfactory service.
In its 2021 order, the High Court recorded the submission on the part of the advocate for the respondent that the part-time employees employed at the Dharwad and Kalaburagi Benches of the High Court had been paid wages at the enhanced rate and arrears had also been paid to them which was, however, prospectively.
Reasoning
The Bench considered the Memo filed by the Additional Government Advocate wherein it was mentioned that application of the petitioner had been considered and the benefit of general holidays and Government holidays as notified by the Court in the calendar was granted to the part time daily wage manual workers working in the Benches of High Court at Dharwad and Kalaburagi.
The High Court explained that the benefit of general holidays is accorded to the class of daily wagers at Dharwad and Kalaburagi Benches of the High Court to make them stand with par with the regular employees in terms of the said remainder benefit. These daily wagers have already been paid the salary equivalent to what is paid to the regular employees. “They shall be continued to be paid accordingly the salary and other benefits at par with regulars. There is no gainsaying about that”, it added.
Disposing of the Petition in such terms, the Bench also held that the employees can make a detailed representation to the Registrar General of this Court on the surviving aspect of the arrears of payment during the aforesaid period from 2012 to 2019.
Cause Title: High Court Legal Service Committee v. Government of Karnataka & Registrar General (Neutral Citation: 2025:KHC:485-DB)
Appearance:
Petitioner: Advocate B V Nidhishree
Respondent: AGA Niloufer Akbar, Advocate B.V. Vidyulatha