MORE THAN TWELVE YEARS AFTER an incident at Maruti Plant in Manesar, which led to the death of an HR manager, the dismissal of over five hundred workers and numerous arrests, on November 7, 2025, Gurugram’s Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court issued a judgment denying reinstatement to a Maruti worker.
Crucially, there was no independent evidence connecting the appellant, Ram Niwas, to the 2012 incident and his name was missing from the FIR and the Special Investigation Team’s report. Presiding Officer Kumud Gugnani who authored the award placed emphasis on the management’s alleged “loss of confidence”, and the need to enforce discipline within the workforce and nation-building. An excerpt of the judgment read:
“...Nation building is the most sacred duty of every Indian in the present day trumpian world of cut throat competition. History is witness to the most glaring fact that only those economies have survived and thrived where the workforce was dressed in discipline. Were India to compete with the leading economies of the day she shall have to induce strict discipline in its workmen force. 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 wrong doer workman and thus breeding more indiscipline under the guise of beneficial legislation.”
When in December 2025, The Leaflet spoke to Ram Niwas, he noted, “I approached the court with the hope that it would decide a basic question: whether the company followed due process in terminating me, and whether that termination was valid or invalid… I too believe in nation building. But the question is, is a nation built by its labourers or by international corporations? And why do international corporations come here in the first place, if not for the availability of cheap labour?”
