in a landmark judgement, delivered on thursday, the supreme court has prospectively quashed the 1976 central government notification prohibiting the use of contract labour for jobs like cleaning, sweeping, dusting and guarding buildings owned and occupied by central psus. in the process, the apex court also reversed a 1996 supreme court judgement pertaining to an air-india case with regard to "appropriate government" and "automatic absorption" of contract labour for psus. the judgement was pronounced in relation to a case filed in the supreme court by the steel authority of india ltd (sail) challenging the july 1998 calcutta high court judgement directing absorption of around 350 contract labourers in the company's paharpur stockyards. the supreme court constitution bench, comprising justices b n kirpal, s.s.m qadri, m b shah, ruma pal and k g balakrishnan, held that on abolition of the contract labour system, the workers had no right to be absorbed automatically. in 1996, in a judgement pertaining to the air-india statutory corporation vs united labour union & others case, a three-judge bench of the supreme court had specified the legal parameters with regard to "appropriate government" and "automatic absorption" of contract labour for psus. the court had ruled that in respect of government companies, the government (central or state) holding majority stake would be the appropriate authority. the air-india judgement had reversed the practice of different state governments being the appropriate authority for central psus having establishments/units in these states. further, following this judgement which also favoured the automatic absorption of contract labour, courts in the country started directing psus to absorb contract labour employed in notified jobs. sail's special leave petitions in the supreme court against the calcutta high court judgement on absorption of the contract labourers in the paharpur stockyards, based on the air-india judgement, was referred to a constitution bench. the ruling encompassed the two issues of "appropriate government" for central psus and "automatic absorption" of contract labour as a consequence of the government notification(s) issued under the contract labour (regulation and abolition) act, 1970 prohibiting employment of contract labour on any job/work. following this, sail took the initiative to involve scope as an intervenor to represent the central psus in contract labour cases. an intervention application through scope, representing psus, was filed in sail's case pending before the supreme court. in october 1999, the issue of reconsideration on "appropriate authority" and "automatic absorption" was referred by a two-member supreme court bench to a larger bench of five judges. on the direction of the supreme court, written arguments were submitted in april 2001. after hearing both parties, the court had reserved its judgement till today.