IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD MONDAY, THE TWENTY FOURTH DAY OF NOVEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI ANIL R. DAVE, THE CHIEF JUSTICE and THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE P.V.SANJAY KUMAR WRIT APPEAL NO : 1550 of 2008 (Writ Appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent against the Order dated 01/08/2008 in WP NO : 16690 OF 2006 on the file of the High Court.) Between: 1 Sri N.Selva Kumar Acharya, S/o.N.Narayanachary Tirupati, Chittoor District. 2 . ..... APPELLANT AND 1 Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, Rep. by its Executive Officer, Tirupati, Chittoor District. 2 The Chairman=cum-Presiding Officer, Industrial Tribunal Cum Labour Court, Ananthapur. .....RESPONDENT(S) Counsel for the Appellant:MR.G.RAMACHANDRA RAO Counsel for the Respondent No.: MR.A.K.JAYAPRAKASH RAO The Court made the following : JUDGMENT: (Per Sri Anil R. Dave, CJ) Being aggrieved by an order dated 1-8-2008 passed in W.P.No.16690 of 2006, this appeal has been filed against respondent No.1-employer. The appellant was working as a daily wager under respondent No.1 from 1-7-1976 and thereafter he was designated as Assistant Stapathy on 22-7-1980. He was placed under suspension on 19-4-1982 and thereafter his service was terminated on 1-4-1983. Being aggrieved by the order of termination, the appellant filed W.P.No.6552 of 1988 before this Court. The said writ petition was dismissed on 31-1-1994. It was observed while rejecting the petition that it was left open to the appellant to approach respondent No.1 or the Government with a representation. As the appeal filed by the appellant on 27-4-1994 did not yield any result, the appellant had approached the Labour Court. The Labour Court passed an award dated 6-8-1997 directing reinstatement with continuity of service. The 1st respondent-employer had filed W.P.No. 35919 of 2005 before this Court challenging the said award. The said petition was allowed whereby the award was set aside and the matter was remanded. After the remand, the Labour Court passed an award on 15-2-2006 directing reinstatement of the appellant with continuity of service, attendant benefits and 50% of back wages. The said award was challenged in the aforestated petition. After hearing the learned concerned Advocates, the learned single Judge has partly allowed the petition whereby the direction with regard to payment of back wages has been turned down and the appellant has been directed to be reinstated into service with continuity of service, excluding the period between 1-4-1983 and 25-3-1998. We have heard the learned Advocates and have perused the award as well as the impugned order. Upon perusal of the order passed by the learned single Judge as well as the award, we find that there was no justifiable reason for awarding back wages. It is a settled legal position that back wages cannot be awarded as a matter of course unless a case is made out for awarding back wages, as observed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in J.K.Synthetics v. K.P.Agarwal[1]. Looking to the above fact, in our opinion, there was no justification in awarding back wages to a tune of 50%. It is however borne out from the record that 25% of back wages for the period commencing from 1-1-1994 to 26-6-1998 was ordered to be deposited in the Labour Court, by this Court and accordingly the said amount has been deposited and withdrawn by the appellant. Therefore, there shall be no direction with regard to the said 25% of back wages already withdrawn by the appellant. In view of the fact that there is no justification for payment of back wages and for reinstatement of the appellant with continuity of service, in our opinion, the learned single Judge has not committed any error and, therefore, the appeal is dismissed. The appeal stands dismissed with no order as to costs. ____________________ ANIL R. DAVE, CJ _________________________ P.V.SANJAY KUMAR, J 24th November, 2008. GRR [1] (2007) 2 SCC 433