Hyderabad: The Telangana high court has partly ruled against Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) while disposing of a batch of appeals concerning employment to dependants of medically unfit workers. The court held that SCCL failed to correctly apply the National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA) in several cases.A bench of Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin directed SCCL to place five retired employees in the higher benefit category applicable to cases of permanent disablement. This would make their dependants eligible for employment.The dispute centred on Clause 9.4.0 of NCWA-VI, which provides employment to a dependant where a worker suffers permanent disablement due to injury or disease. In cases classified as “general physical debility”, benefits are restricted based on age and residual service. SCCL had placed most workers in this category, granting monetary compensation instead of jobs on the ground that they were over 58 years or had less than two years of service left.The appeals involved over 30 workers engaged in underground and surface mining who were later declared medically unfit. Earlier, a single judge had ordered fresh medical evaluation at Gandhi Medical College. The review, however, classified 121 of 127 employees under general debility, leaving only six in the permanent disability category.The high court found the pattern of classification deeply concerning, noting that workers with amputations, strokes, seizure disorders and severe vision impairment were wrongly placed under general debility.Observing that such conditions constituted specific and permanent disabilities rather than age-related weakness, the bench held that SCCL’s approach undermined a welfare measure intended to protect miners.The court granted relief to five workers under the permanent disability clause and directed that any compensation already paid may be adjusted or recovered from their terminal dues in accordance with law.
