PRITPAL SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave to appeal is granted.

(2.) Learned counsel appearing for the petitioners and learned standing counsel for Union of India representing the Railways are heard at length. The petitioner joined the services in the Railways as casual labour in 1978. He was given a temporary status in the year 1983 and he continued to work on one of the group D posts in open line of the Railways. In the year 1991, he was sent to the construction project to discharge duties on higher post of Material Checking Clerk. The material checking clerk is group C post with higher pay on which he continued for a long period of six years. He approached the Central Administrative Tribunal Principal Bench, New Delhi seeking relief to regularize his services on the post of material checking clerk on which he was working.

(3.) The Central Administrative Tribunal by order dated 21-3-2002 rejected his claim for regularization on the post of material checking clerk. The only relief granted was that on his repatriation to his parent organization in open line, he would be entitled to pay protection in accordance with rules, instructions and judicial pronouncement on the subject. The operative part of the order of the Tribunal reads thus:-