The Delhi High Court recently upheld a Labour Court's refusal to categorize a medical sales representative as a “workman” in a case under the Industrial Disputes (ID) Act, 1947 [Sh. Samarendra Das Vs M/s Win Medicare Pvt. Ltd.].
Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju observed that the issue of whether or not sales personnel are workmen is settled.
In this regard, the Court referred to the Supreme Court decision in HR Adyanthaya & Ors. v. Sandoz (India) Ltd. & Ors in which it was held that the sales representatives who are involved in pharmaceuticals are not workmen and that to treat such persons as workmen would be contrary to the law since a person, to be qualified as a workman, must be doing the work which falls in a category, manual, clerical, supervisory or technical.
The Court was dealing with an appeal challenging the dismissal of a claim petition moved by a sales representative, one Samarendra Das, against a medicare company.
The Court observed that Das cannot be considered a “workman” since he is a qualified graduate working in a specialised field of work and not doing menial or clerical work.
“It can clearly be seen that the Petitioner was not a person doing clerical or menial jobs but was a qualified graduate with a specialization and had also received specialized training for his field of work. There thus can be no doubt that the work that was being done by the Petitioner was of a specialized skill which he received after training that was imparted by the Respondent Company,” it said
The single-judge also said that it is the settled law that while examining petitions filed challenging orders of Labour Court, the High Court does not sit as an appellate court. The Court explained that it is only required to examine whether the Labour Court exercised its jurisdiction in accordance with law.
Having analyzed the case details, the High Court found no infirmity in the Labour Court's decision.
“This Court finds no infirmity with the Impugned Order that would merit interference by this Court in the exercise of its supervisory jurisdiction,” the Court said.
Advocate Gautam Kumar Laha appeared for the petitioner.
Advocates Jitesh Pandey, Hrishabh Tiwari, Pooja Sood, Aniket Singh and Naman Arora appeared for Win Medicare.
[Read Judgment]