STATE OF KARNATAKA Vs. R.JAGADEESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals are preferred by the State from the order dated 28.02.2012 of learned Single Judge of this Court whereby, the order dated 11.03.2011 of the appellant herein has been quashed and the matter is remanded for reconsideration in accordance with law, as expeditiously as possible and in any event not later than three months. The appellant has also filed an application for condoning the delay of 270 days in preferring the appeals and the delay is sought to be explained by the chronology of dates on which the matter was processed in the department concerned of the appellant. In view of the inordinate delay and the direction as aforesaid in the impugned order, learned Government Advocate was extensively heard on the merits of the contentions sought to be canvassed in the appeals.

(2.) The order dated 11.03.2011 of the appellant which was under challenge before learned Single Judge was itself made pursuant to an earlier order dated 15.04.2010 in WP Nos. 10993/2010 and WP Nos. 12061-12067/2010; and that order was specifically made in respect of the seven employees of the Mysore City Corporation, who were petitioners before the learned Single Judge. Those employees - original petitioners have repeatedly approached this Court on the basis that they were appointed on daily wage basis since the years 1986-1987 and they were continued in service for all the years till 2012, without being regularized in service. Undisputedly, the case of the original petitioners had chequered history of several litigations starting with the first litigation in the year 1989, when a group of petitions being WP Nos. 22957-22978/1999 were disposed by Hon'ble Justice S. Rajendrababu (as His Lordship then was) on 28.03.1990, with the observations as under;

(3.) After the above order, as stated at the Bar by learned Government Advocate, the employees concerned were pushed back to the minimum of pay-scale and their request for regularization was rejected. It is thereafter that the employees kept on making representations, in view of the revision of pay-scale and application of the recommendations of the Fourth Pay Commission. Admittedly, in WP No. 10993/2010, the direction dated 15.04.2010 were issued by this Court to consider the claim of the petitioners therein, in accordance with law and as expeditiously as possible. Pursuant to that direction, the order dated 11.03.2011 which was impugned before learned Single Judge was made, and perusal of that order reveals that, even as the employees had claimed to have been appointed in 1986-1987 against vacant posts and had put in continuous service since then, the stand of the appellant herein was that (i) at the time of creation of those specific posts, there were no Cadre and Recruitment Rules, (ii) the time scale of pay granted to the employees by order dated 23.11.1995 was also withdrawn, (iii) no information was available with the appellant herein about the employees concerned having been appointed against vacant posts, (iv) that guidelines issued by the Government pursuant to the judgment of the Apex Court in Secretary, State of Karnataka vs. Umadevi and others, were not permitting regularization in service and that the employees concerned had continued in service on account of judgment and orders of the High Court, issued in the years 1990 and 1993.