December 3, 2025 — An Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court in Gurugram has rejected the reinstatement petition filed by a former permanent worker of Maruti Suzuki, nearly 13 years after the fatal violence at the company’s Manesar plant.
One of the terminated workers, Ram Niwas, had petitioned for his reinstatement. He argued that his name did not appear in the FIR registered after the violence, nor in the report of the Special Investigation Team, and that no internal investigation had been conducted before his dismissal.
Despite these arguments, the court has now dismissed his plea. The judgement — issued on 7 November 2025 and formally notified on 1 December — concluded that the termination was “not wrong or illegal.”
In its 66-page order, the court emphasised the “need for strict discipline” in factory settings, stating that reinstating a worker after a mass-termination following violence could undermine workforce discipline and hurt industrial competitiveness.
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The presiding officer, Kumud Gugnani, observed that “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.”
Rejecting the workman’s contention that he was never named in the criminal proceedings, the court replied that “every person indulging in mob violence cannot be named in the FIR” — and that in a case involving hundreds of dismissed employees, separate inquiries for each would be “nigh impossible.”
On 18 July 2012, a major clash erupted at the Manesar factory following a dispute between workers and management. The violence — which included arson — resulted in the death of the HR Head and injuries to many executives and workers.
In the aftermath, the company terminated 546 permanent workers and around 1,500 contract workers. Of the permanent workers, some were charged; 148 were arrested, though only a subset was eventually convicted.
