Supreme Court directs Delhi International Airport Limited to abolish its contract labour system

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today directed Delhi International Airport Limited ( DIAL) to abolish its system of contractual labour and asked it to pay compensation of Rs 5 lakh to each of its 136 workers who were not reinstated after expiry of their contracts.

A bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and A K Patnaik said the Centre's notification of July 26, 2004 pertaining to regularisation of contractual labour is binding on DIAL.

"DIAL must abolish all contract labour. Notification is clearly binding on and obligatory for DIAL," the bench said adding that privatisation of airport does not mean the Central government has no control over it.

The bench, however, refused to reinstate 136 trolley retrievers, saying their jobs have already been given to others and reinstatement would lead to an "absurd" situation.

The court passed the order on a petition filed by workers' union challenging their ouster.