21-year-old 'Sword of Damocles' ends as Orissa HC intervenes in worker's regularisation plea

Orissa High Court directed Odisha Higher Education Department to reconsider lab attendant SK Patra's regularisation plea within three months after it was rejected in 2019. "The petitioner can't be kept on the tenterhooks...This is nothing but a form of exploitation...by placing the 'Sword of Damocles' over his head," the court said. Patra has worked on a contractual basis since 2005.