State Of Bihar vs Kripa Nand Singh on 23 July, 2014
and others (supra), wherein Hon'ble Apex Court has held that
denial of back wages would amount to indirectly punishing the employee
and rewarding the employer by relieving him of the obligation to pay back-
wages and where an employer wants to deny back-wages to an employee or
contest his entitlement to get consequential benefits, it is required to
specifically plead and prove that during the intervening period, the
employee was gainfully employed. Since in the cases at hand, petitioner
failed to prove factum of gainful employment, if any of the respondents
during the period in question, no illegality can be said to have been
committed by the Tribunal below, while holding respondents entitled for
back wages.