On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected a special leave petition of HT Media, paving the way for 272 staffers of Hindustan Times to go back to work and/or receive their dues. The staffers were terminated in 2004, 14 years ago, and a group of them been fighting a legal battle with Hindustan Times since then.

The Supreme Court order said: “As this Court is examining the order passed in the writ petition, this special leave petition challenging the order passed by the LPA Bench holding the letters patent appeal not to be maintainable, is not required to be entertained. The special leave petition is, accordingly, dismissed.”

The 272 sacked employees were employed with the printing division of HTL. In 2002, promoters of HTL floated HT Media Ltd (HTML) and “the entire media business was transferred to the new company”. On October 3, 2004, these employees working with HTL were terminated under Section 25FFF of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Since then, over 20 of them have passed away, while some are “bedridden or handicapped” by now. About 70 employees were carrying forward the legal battle. Read Newslaundry‘s in-depth coverage of this here.