RAJENDAR RAI Vs. NAGAR MAHAPALIKA, ALLAHABAD AND ANOTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The above mentioned are the seven petitions by Sarvsri Rajendra Rai, V.K. Misra, Irfan Hussain, Banwari Lal Srivastava, P. K. Khare, Nirmala Devi and S.K. Pandey respectively invoking extraordinary Jurisdiction of this Court under Art. 226 of the Constitution for challenging the orders of termination/retrenchment of their services by giving one month's pay in lieu of one month's notices and retrenchment compensation to each one of the petitioners vide order dated 1-2-1992. Since all the petitions involve common question of law and fact, I purpose to dispose of the same by a common order. The writ petition filed by Sri Rajendra Rai in which affidavits have been exchanged between the parties, shall be treated as the leading case.

(2.) The factual matrix of the case in all these writ petitions is that the petitioners wire ministering in the establishment of Nagar Mahapalika, Allahabad on daily wage basis in different capacities on the basis of their appointments/engagements made on different dates. The petitioner Rajendra Rai was employed as Pump Operator, Yoegesh Kumar Misra and Irfan Hussain also claimed to be working as Class 4 employees and Banwari Lal Srivastava claimed to have been appointed as a Tracer while Prera Prakash Khare and Nirmala Devi claimed *to have been serving the establishment in clerical cadre Lastly, Sri S.K. Par.dey, claimed to have been working as Junior Engineer in the establishment of the Nagar Mahapalika.

(3.) From a perusal of the facts on record, it would transpire that the question as to regularisation of daily rated workers of Nagar Palikas was tsken up by the State Government and as a sequal to a compromise arrived at between all concerned, it was decided that the services of those daily rated workers, who had put in three years of continuous service on Oct. 11, 1989 with 240 days of service in each year, should be regularised. A letter being letter No. 4088/XI-6-1989 Nagar Vikas Anubhag, Lucknow 25th Oct. 1989 (Annexure-6 to the writ petition) was addressed by Special Secretary to the State Government to all the District Magistrates of the State with a directive to them to submit a proposal in Form ka attached to the letter delineating therein tho details of the additional posts which the establishment may require so that requisite number of posts may be created as to enable regularisation of the services of such daily rated workers. It was also quipped therein that the Government orders providing for reservation in favour of BC/SC/ST and other categories were to be borne in mind in such regularisation. It transpires from the letter No. 6/958/23-General/90 Lucknow dated 29-7-1991 issued by Director Local Bodies (Annexure-2 to the Suppl affidavit in Santosh Kumar Pandsys' writ petition) that appointments in local bodies on daily wage/work charge basis were banned excepting appointments on compassionate ground of a dependent of an employee dying in harness and the heads, Mukhya Nagar Adhikaris and Executive Officers of the local bodies were informed accordingly by letter No. 462/NBM/11-6-1990 dated 25-9-1990 issued from the State Government and letter No. 6/584/23-Samanya/90 dated 10-1-1971 issued from the Directorate The main reason underlying the imposition of ban on appointments, was the abolition of octroi (Chungi) which was a prima source of the income to the coffer of local bodies. The financial condition of the local bodies which was said to be in shambles aggravated further due to abolition of octroi. But it would be evident from a conspectus of various government orders on record that appointments of daily rated workers on large scale went on unabated even after 11-10-1789 further strait-jacket ting the financial coffer of the local bodies besides impinging upon citizen9'fundamental right to equality of opportunity in the matter of employment. Therefore, the Government had to come out with certain directions contained in D. O. letter No. 9415/y-l-199l Nagar Vikas Anubhag-I Lucknow dated Nov. 28, 1991 in respect of the daily rated/work charge employees appointed subsequent to 11-10-1989. The relevant portion of the D. O. letter is quoted below with a view to high-light the deepening crisis under which the State Government was constrained to issue a G. O., it being G.O. No. 249/IX-1-91-48 Misc. 1991 Nagar Vikas Anubhag-1 Lucknow dated 6th Dec. 1991 putting an embargo upon appointments etc. of workers on daily wage/work charge basis :