Guwahati: The Supreme Court issued a judgement directing the payment of 25 tea gardens in Assam. A total of Rs 650 crores must be paid to the tea workers for the outstanding debts owed by 28,556 employees of the state’s 25 tea gardens.
A group of judges including justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar accepted the report submitted by retired Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre. Justice MR Shah said, “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 time stipulated by the committee and on due proper identification”.
The Supreme Court established the committee of Justice Sapre to oversee the accurate computation and timely payment of the tea garden workers’ dues by its order dated January 10, 2020.
According to Live Law, the committee’s study determined that Rs. 230.7 crores and Rs. 414.7 crores, or about that much, are the entire amount of various dues owed to the 28,556 workers at the 25 Assam tea estates.
It should be noted that the state government paid the relevant employees an interim payment of Rs. 99 crores upon receiving a directive from the Supreme Court in 2018.
On the other hand, Senior Advocate Sanjib Kumar objected to the report and the sum due in relation to the 7th Pay Commission suggestion, speaking on behalf of the state of Assam. However, the committee was represented by attorney Gaurav Agarwal, who emphasised that the committee had particularly addressed the same problem of arrears of responsibility as per the 7th pay commission proposal in its earlier ruling dated 19 May 2022.