NETRA PAL SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this batch of applications filed under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 by the Casual Labourers of the Railway Mail Service (RM.S.) Division of the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications, common questions of law have been raised in regard to their regularisation in Group 'D' posts and the applicability of the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act to them. In view of this, it is proposed to deal with them in a common judgment.

(2.) We have carefully gone through the. records of these cases and have heard the learned counsel for both the parties. We may, at the outset, discuss the legal position applicable and thereafter consider the reliefs to which the applicants are entitled to in the light of the facts and circumstances of each of these applications. A Pull Bench of this Tribunal has held in Rehmat Ullah Khan and others v. Union of India and others, 1989(2) SLJ 293, that although a Casual Labourer does not bold a civil post, be is in the service of the union and, consequently, this Tribunal has the jurisdiction to entertain the cases of Casual Labourers for adjudication. The Pull Bench has, however, left open (he question as regards the relief that a Casual Labourer may be entitled to in a given case. This is in view of the fact that the rules applicable to them vary from service to service.

(3.) In these applications, we are concerned with the Casual Labourers engaged by the Department of Posts in the Ministry of Communications. In the well-known case of Daily Rated Casual Labour employed under P & T Union of India and others. 1987 (2) SCALE 844, .the Supreme Court has . observed that non-regularisation of temporary employees or Casual' labour for a long period, is not a wise policy. The Court, ' therefore, directed the respondents to prepare a scheme on a rational basis for absorbing, as far as possible, the Casual Labourers who have been continuously working for more than one year in the Posts and Telegraphs Department.