AMRELI MUNICIPALITY Vs. GUJARAT PRADESH MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES UNION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This group of petitions has been referred to us in view of different observations of two Division Benches on the point as to whether the Labour Court/ Industrial Tribunal can order regularisation of services to a local authority which is a public body in which there is no availability of sanctioned set up as per the provisions of Municipalities Act.

(2.) Though incidentally, the order of Reference is passed in Special Civil Application No. 5746 of 1999 where the petitioner is the Municipality constituted under the provisions of Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963, the legal conclusions drawn by us would be applicable to all the statutory and local bodies and, therefore, we have considered the question posed to us in a broader perspective. This is particularly in view of the fact that the learned Counsel appearing for the parties have cited various decisions before us. On consideration of the same, the following broad questions emerge for our consideration:

(3.) Learned Counsel Ms.Sejal Mandavia appearing for the petitioner -Jamnagar Municipal Corporation, while adopting the arguments of Mr. Tushar Mehta, invited our attention to the decision in the case of P. Ravindran and others Vs. Union Territory of Pondicherry reported in 1997 (1) SCC 350 wherein the Supreme Court held that Public Service Commission having been conferred constitutional duty to select suitable candidates by inviting applications from the open market, every candidate has a fundamental right to seek consideration and for selection through open competition. Therefore, the process of recruitment through Commission as envisaged under the Constitution cannot be bypassed by issuing direction for regularisation of services of ad-hoc persons who had come to the service through back-door entry.