The Times of India reports that ahead of its INR 210 billion (USD 2.74 billion) IPO, India-based LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) was ‘rescued’ by the Supreme Court from having to take a financial hit by resolving a 40-year-old issue on the absorption of 12,000 temporary employees by ruling that they would be entitled only to cash compensation and not employment. The issue of absorption of 11,780 employees, temporarily engaged between 1985 and 1991 in LIC, continued to get judicial attention despite multiple awards from industrial tribunals and Supreme Court and high court judgments. Concluding what could be one of the longest serial litigations over re-employment of thousands, a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath said, "LIC as a public employer, the recruitment process of the corporation must meet the constitutional standard of a fair and open process.” Writing the 90-page detailed judgment and analysing every aspect of the controversy from 1985, Justice Chandrachud said, "A public employer such as LIC cannot be directed to carry out a mass absorption of over 11,000 workers on flawed premises without following a recruitment process."