S NARAYANAN Vs. SUPERINTENDING ENGINEER, O/O SUPERINTENDING ENGINEER; ASSISTANT ENGINEER, SUB-STATION, TAMIL NADU ELECTRICITY BOARD (TANGEDCO LTD )

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner seeks to set aside the impugned proceedings dated 15.06.2013 passed by the first respondent / the Superintending Engineer, TANGEDCO, Madurai, in and by which, the petitioner was removed from service.

(2.) During the time the Court was under long boycott by the lawyers, learned counsel for the petitioner failed to appear and therefore, the petitioner has attempted to appear as party-in-person, however, since the issue involved in this matter is little bit complicated in nature, this Court, in the interest of both parties, has appointed Mr.P.Gunasekaran, as the counsel for the petitioner to assist the petitioner as well as this Court.

(3.) Mr.P.Gunasekaran, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that initially, the petitioner along with 80000 persons were deployed by the respondent Board as helpers on contract basis. Subsequently, in the year 1990-1991, the respondent Board ousted the contract labours as they wanted to recruit the helpers on regular time scale. Aggrieved against such stand taken by the respondent Board, the Trade Union raised several industrial disputes before the Labour Courts in all over the State and finally, the said issue went upto the Supreme Court, where the Supreme Court constituted a committee headed by Hon'ble Mr.Justice Khalid (Retd.) with a direction to work out a solution to resolve the issue. After elaborate enquiry, His Lordship filed a status report observing that the contract labours and new entrants can be appointed as helpers at the ratio of 1:1 basis. Thereafter, a Circle Level Committee was constituted to identify the contract labours and thereupon the Committee verified the records and identified the eligible contract labours and in the said committee, the petitioner had also appeared on 16.12.1997 and after verification, he was appointed as helper in the regular post by virtue of an order passed by the Chief Engineer, Chennai, dated 14.03.1998.