RUPESH R. GAONKAR Vs. STATE OF GOA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present Civil Appeal, arising out of leave granted by this Court, has been preferred by Rupesh R. Gaonkar and other similarly situated persons (hereinafter referred to as "the appellants"), being aggrieved by the judgment and final order dtd. 28/7/2023 passed by a Division Bench of the High Court of Bombay at Goa in Writ Petition No. 95 of 2021, along with the connected Writ Petition No. 147 of 2021. By the impugned judgment, the High Court declined to give effect to the order dtd. 7/2/2014 passed by the Principal Chief Engineer, Public Works Department (for short "PWD"), Government of Goa, which had granted the appellants temporary status and recognised their entitlement to be absorbed in the establishment of the PWD as and when vacancies arose. The High Court non-suited the appellants principally on the ground that the order dtd. 7/2/2014 suffered from the absence of the concurrence of the Government, and accordingly, dismissed both the writ petitions, while granting liberty to the appellants to participate in future selection processes, with sympathetic consideration of age relaxation.

(2.) The appellants are members of the PWD Labour Supply Society ("the Society"), a body constituted by the respondent-State itself, headed by the Principal Chief Engineer, PWD, with the specific and avowed object of putting an end to the exploitation of contract labour engaged in the PWD and ensuring the eventual regularisation of their services. It is the case of the appellants that despite the State having, over a period spanning more than a decade, taken repeated and consistent steps towards their absorption, including the grant of "temporary status" with parity in pay and emoluments with regular employees, the State has now sought to resile from its own commitment on a purely technical and self-created ground, after having taken the benefit of the appellants' labour for decades.

(3.) The appellants were originally engaged, between the years 1967 and 2003, as workmen belonging to the unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled categories, by private contractors executing works for the PWD of the Government of Goa. To obviate exploitation of such contract labour by intermediary contractors, the respondent-State constituted the PWD Labour Supply Society, a society which supplies requisite workers to establishments operated by the PWD and which is, significantly, headed by the Principal Chief Engineer of the PWD himself, a senior functionary of the State Government.