The bench stated that sickness of industry was no excuse for non-payment of workers' wages. Significantly, it also noted that the recognised union, the Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh, was not taking proper steps to represent the workers' cause. The bench said under the Sick Industries Companies Act, the recognised union is not the sole representative of workers. The mill was asked to pay the workers by March. When the SLP, filed by Panna Khatau's daughter, came up before the bench of Justice S P Bharucha of the apex court, the company counsel assured payment to theworkers. However, in the next hearing in April this year, the counsel reported non-payment, and the SLP was dismissed.

The workers were represented by Colin Gonsalves with Aparna Bhatt and Bharat Sangal, while the company's counsel was Arun Jaitley with Gopal Jain.