Archive · 3 Dec 2025
HC Orders Punjab to Pay Rs 5 Lakh to 1985 Retrenched Worker
A man named Mohan Lal was working on a big water project called the Anandpur Sahib Hydel Project.
He was fired in 1985 when the project ended.
He and other workers tried to get their jobs back through the courts.
The court said the state should give them jobs, but Mohan Lal didn't get one.
Many years later, the court said the state should pay him Rs 5 lakh because he was treated unfairly.
The court said the state should be a good example for employers and should not make workers wait so long for justice.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered the Punjab government to pay Rs 5 lakh to Mohan Lal, a worker retrenched from the Anandpur Sahib Hydel Project in 1985.
The court emphasized that the state must act as a model employer and cannot be a source of prolonged litigation.
Mohan Lal was part of a group of workers who challenged their termination, with the case spanning decades of legal battles.
The court rejected the state's delay objection and found that Lal's case was covered by earlier court directions and undertakings.
Reinstatement with back wages was deemed impracticable due to the long lapse of time, leading to the lump-sum compensation order.
- Who
- Mohan Lal, a retrenched worker from the Anandpur Sahib Hydel Project (ASHP)
- What
- The Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the Punjab government to pay Rs 5 lakh as lump-sum compensation to Mohan Lal
- When
- The ruling was delivered on November 20, 2023, following decades of litigation
- Where
- The case was heard in the Punjab and Haryana High Court
- Why
- The court found that the state had failed to absorb the employee despite earlier court orders and undertakings, causing significant hardship to the petitioner
- Petitioner
- Mohan Lal
- Project
- Anandpur Sahib Hydel Project (ASHP)
- Appointment Date
- September 10, 1978
- Retrenchment Date
- July 31, 1985
- Compensation Amount
- Rs 5 lakh
- Court
- Punjab and Haryana High Court
- Judge
- Justice Harpreet Singh Brar
- Key Legal Principle
- State must act as model employer