"If the court issues an order of reinstatement of an employee with '50% Back wages,' it means you need to take back the employee on your payroll (presuming you had terminated him earlier) and also give him half the wages for the period during which he was not paid. So, if the employee was terminated and the case dragged on for five years, you'll have to pay 50% of the wages for the past five years in a lump sum.
Such orders are common whenever a Labour Court finds that an employer has terminated an employee illegally or without sufficient cause.
Since the employee has been wrongfully denied a livelihood by the company, he is eligible for full salary. However, owing to the fact that the employee had not rendered any actual service, the courts, at times, award only up to 50% or half of the wages.
This is an instance of how the Indian judicial system protects the rights of workers in cases of random, unfair, and illegal actions by employers.
I hope the concept and the judgment are clear to you now.
Warm regards."