The Odisha High Court has issued a historic order awarding a one-time compensation of Rs 40 lakh to two cleaners who worked as day laborers at the State Bank of India for over three decades. In the age of modern technology and AI, the court ruled that it is impossible for them to get new jobs at this age.
The court ordered the bank authorities to pay a one-time compensation of Rs 40 lakh to each of them without regularizing their jobs.
A division bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice Chittaranjan Das delivered the landmark judgment in June. Earlier, on June 20, 2025, a single bench of the High Court dismissed the claims of regularization, bonus and dues of Mayadhar Nayak and Bayana Nayak. They appealed to the Division Bench challenging the judgment of the single bench.
During the hearing, the State Bank authorities offered to pay Rs 5 lakh each as a one-time settlement to the two employees. However, the court rejected the bank’s proposal as too little compensation. The Division Bench observed that the compensation offer of Rs.5 lakhs sought by the Bank was so low that it was not worth mentioning. At present, since the value of money is gradually decreasing, nothing can be done with this little money.
The court added that the two petitioners had worked hard for the bank for many years. At this age they will not get a good job anywhere else. In this age of AI or artificial intelligence, courts are not sure how they will make a living doing what they have spent so much time doing.
The conflict began in the mid-1990s. Mayadhar Nayak in 1994 and Bayana Nayak in 1995 were employed as cleaners on daily wages in State Bank of India (SBI) Government Treasury Branch at Bhubaneswar. They approached the High Court for the first time in 1999 as their jobs were not sustainable even after working for a long time. After that, there is a fight between them for a long time