Supreme Court closes 25-year Bihar-Jharkhand dues dispute, fixing 12% and 6% interest for delayed dues

Ruling in a writ petition brought by an association of semi-government employees, the Supreme Court closed a long-running dispute over unpaid dues owed to workers of five state-owned corporations that were split between Bihar and Jharkhand after the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000 divided the state. The workers, including daily-wage employees, had waited years for unpaid salaries, Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) contributions, and other dues after the corporations became defunct following the split. Building on an earlier order and the work of a court-appointed committee, the Bench directed the two states to close the process of identifying remaining unpaid workers within twelve months, publish full details of paid and pending claims on official websites for transparency, pay a one-time amount of Rs.

1 lakh to each daily-wage worker, and pay simple interest, at 12% a year on delayed EPF dues and 6% a year on delayed salary and other dues, for the entire period of delay. Liability between the two states is to be apportioned under a mechanism the Court had already approved in an earlier order. The Bench was careful to record that these directions were shaped by the case's unusually long and complicated history and were not meant to lay down a general rule for how such successor-state claims are to be resolved.