Mihir Sen was in service of Sona Motors India Private Ltd (Sona Motors) during the period 2006 to 2014. Sona Motors decided to post him on a foreign assignment with its group company, Mona Motors (Japan). Accordingly, an

According to Section 2A(1), for the purposes of this the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, an employee shall be said to be in 'continuous service' for a period if he has, for that period been in un-interrupted service, including service which may be interrupted on account of sickness, accident, leave, absence from duty without leave (not being absence in respect of which an order treating the absence as break in service has been passed in accordance with the standing orders, rules or regulations governing the employees of the establishment), layoff, strike or a lock-out or cessation of work not due to any fault of the employee, whether such uninterrupted or interrupted service was rendered before or after the commencement of this Act. In the case of Mercedes Benz India Private Limited Vs. Noshir Nadir Desai , the High Court held that mere transfer of employees to another company wherein the ultimate management is common cannot be termed as discontinuation of service. The employer Mercedes Benz continued to be the primary/parent employer even during assignment of the employee to the Host Company Daimler AG. High Court also observed that it is because of the common management of both the companies that this transfer took place and also referred the Agreement where it was clearly mentioned that the provisions of the existing employment contract with the Home Company shall continue to apply unless this Supplementary Agreement provides otherwise. In view of the above decided case, transfer of Mihir Sen to another company under same management, i.e, Mona Motors (Japan) will be considered as continuity of service for payment of Gratuity.