More than a decade after the incident of violence on 18 July, 2012 in the Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the Labour Courts have once again revealed their anti-worker stance. In an award released to the petitioners on 1 December 2025 (issued on 7 November, 2025) the Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court in Gurugram, Haryana, dismissed a worker’s appeal for reinstatement, stressing the need for ‘strict discipline’ amongst the workforce. Ram Niwas was a permanent worker at the Maruti Suzuki Manesar plant whose services were terminated following the July 2012 incident in which a fire broke out in the plant and a company personnel, General Manager – HR lost his life. A total of 546 regular workers and 1500 contract workers had been retrenched following the incident. 148 workers eventually faced trial for his murder, among other offences. In March 2017, a Sessions Court in Gurugram convicted 31 workers, including thirteen of them who were sentenced to life imprisonment (State v. Ram Mehar and ors., SC/15/2013, Additional Sessions Judge, Gurugram, judgment dated 10.3.17). Most of them were released on bail pending their appeal before the High Court but only after spending a considerable period in prison. A few have died subsequently.
Ram Niwas became a prominent figure in the legal battle for the reinstatement of the dismissed workers. Of the 546 terminated workers, around 350 are fighting a legal battle for reinstatement. In its award of November 2025, (accessed by PUDR) the presiding officer of the Industrial Tribunal -cum-Labour Court in Gurugram said that the dismissal of the workman, Ram Niwas cannot be termed wrong or illegal citing the need, if India were to compete with the leading economies of the day, it would have to induce strict discipline in its workforce. Ram Niwas had argued that his name was not in the FIR lodged in connection with the 2012 incident, nor did it appear in the report of Special Investigating Team nor the witnesses had taken his name in the criminal proceedings. Also, there had been no internal probe. The court seems to have disregarded this crucial fact by stating that every person indulging in mob violence cannot be named in the FIR.
It is worthwhile to quote portions from of the 67-page judgement. “It shall be remiss on part of this Court to part with the award without observing that “…nation building is the most sacred duty of every Indian in the present day trumpian world of cut throat competition….The least that may be expected of the justice delivery department is not succumbing to the oft repeated sentiment of showing empathy and compassion to the wrongdoer workman and thus breeding more indiscipline under the guise of beneficial legislation”. (Ram Niwas v. Maruti Suzuki India Limited, Manesar, Gurgaon; Reference No. 208 of 2016, Date of Award: 07.11.2025).
The irony is that that this supposed ‘discipline’ and the goal of ‘cut throat competition’ is sought to be defended by the ‘justice delivery department,’ at the cost of basic justice for the worker, and his rights as a citizen, in the name of the sacred duty of every Indian! It is shocking and condemnable, that the Labour Court seems to be dealing with a worker’s fight for his basic labour and democratic rights as a mere ‘law and order issue,’ and explicitly declaring it’s partisan position in favour of the Company.
Paramjeet Singh and Harish Dhawan
(Secretaries)
