The Supreme Court has ruled that the Bangalore-based Scotts Engineering will not pay Rs 1 crore to the former employees of its damaged vessel, which met with a cyclonic storm near Madras Fishing Harbour in 1993.

A bench of Justices H K Sema and Markandey Katju said, “The High Court division bench was not justified in holding that the sum of Rs 1 crore should be paid over to the plaintiff. ”

Scotts Engineering had filed a petition challenging the ruling of the Madras High Court which had asked the company to pay  the former employees of the M V Sagar vessel.

The vessel was grounded offshore near the Madras fishing harbour after being hit by a cyclone but could not be recovered. The employees had filed a case after two years demanding wages after which the HC had ordered the company to pay the employees.