The judges ruled that it will be open to the Labour

Commissioner to call for relevant records regarding work production by women employees and male employees in the age group of 55 to 60 years and 61 to 63 years. The bench also asked the Labour Commissioner to consider, while giving his report, the work production figures of women employees who had obtained interim relief in petitions filed before the High Court, to judge their efficiency. S N Deshpande, counsel for the petitioner, argued that in a number of petitions filed by similarly placed women employees, the court had granted interim relief and the concerned petitioners had continued in employment till the age of 63 years by virtue of such interim relief. There is therefore no reason to pass any different order in the present writ petition, he submitted. Thereupon the judges ruled, "Having regard to the fact that in a number of other writ petitions filed by women employees this court had granted interim relief and not merely ad-interim relief, we direct that ad-interim relief granted by the Industrial Court, which is to continue to operate till February 8, 2013, shall continue till April 18, 2013." Meena Doshi, counsel for Podar Mill, argued that though such writ petitions were filed and interim reliefs were granted, the High Court had not declared the standing order 20-A as unconstitutional. Moreover, on attaining age of 63 years, the concerned petitioners withdrew those petitions without inviting any judgement on merits. The counsel, therefore, submitted that the petitioner should not be given any interim relief or even ad-interim relief, but in case if she succeeds in this petition, the court may award her all back wages. To counter this argument, petitioner's counsel said litigants in those writ petitions were required to withdraw their cases, as the respondent-employer had insisted that retirement dues of employees will be paid only if they withdrew their petitions. The judges, however, felt that it was not necessary to enter into this controversy at this stage, as they proposed to hear the question of interim relief on merits.