Hey everyone, let's dive into an interesting court case from Chennai that wrapped up on December 16, 2025. It's all about K. Saravanan, who had his pay reduced without any warning, and how the court decided in his favor.
K. Saravanan started as a Regular Assessor (Trainee) under the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd. (TANGEDCO) in Chennai. After six months of training, on August 23, 2010, he became a Regular Assessor with a decent pay scale. But things took a turn on February 12, 2014, when his grade pay was suddenly reduced without any notice.
Saravanan challenged this pay cut in the Writ Court with case number W.P.No.8835 of 2014. However, on June 10, 2022, the court rejected his claim. They said his case should go to the Labour Court because he was considered a "worker" under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
"The Writ Court dismissed his claim, suggesting he should approach the Labour Court."
Saravanan didn't give up. He appealed the decision, arguing that the pay cut was unfair because he wasn't given a chance to explain. His lawyer pointed out that the Writ Court didn't consider this important aspect.
The appeal was heard by Justice M.S. Ramesh and Justice R. Sakthivel. They emphasized that even if there is another way to solve the issue, a Writ Petition can still be valid if there's a breach of fairness.
"The absence of a show cause notice makes the order a violation of fairness."
On December 16, 2025, the court canceled the previous judgment and overturned the pay reduction orders from February and March 2014. They ordered any recovered amounts to be refunded to Saravanan within four weeks.
"The order challenged in the Writ Petition, being against the principles of fairness, cannot be legally supported."
