STATE OF UTTARAKHAND Vs. SANJAY KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THROUGH a Government Order dated 14.07.2005, the State Government issued a direction, that the vacant posts in Class IV service to fill up exclusively from amongst persons who were already working in the department on part-time basis and/or from amongst surplus employees. Thereafter, the State Government sanctioned 13 temporary posts in Class IV service vide an order dated 22.08.2005 in the State Ayurvedic Hospitals. THROUGH the instant order, the direction contained in the earlier order dated 14.07.2005 was reiterated, in as much as it was again asserted, that the vacant posts in Class IV service were to be filled up exclusively from amongst persons who were already working in the department on part-time basis and/or from amongst surplus employees.

(2.) FOLLOWING the directions contained in the aforesaid Government Orders dated 14.07.2005 and 22.08.2005, District Ayurvedic and Unani Officers, who were appointing authorities for posts in Class IV service, convened a process of selection, wherein the zone of selection was limited to those working in the department on part-time basis and / or surplus employees. On the basis of suitability determined by the process of selection, the respondents herein came to be absorbed against vacant posts in Class IV service in the year 2006.

(3.) THE learned Single Judge allowed Writ Petition (S/S) No. 1103 of 2008 on two counts. Firstly, because the directions issued by the Principal Secretary, Medical, Health, Family Welfare, Government of Uttarakhand were taken into consideration only to mechanically order the termination of the respondents without due application of mind, in as much as no finding was recorded in the case of any of the respondents, that their appointment was illegal. Secondly, the learned Single Judge was of the view, that as a consequence of their absorption into service in 2006, certain civil rights came to be vested in them. THE termination of the respondents, in the aforesaid view of the matter without following the rules of natural justice, was, therefore, held to be unacceptable in law.