ASHISH KUMAR SINHA AND OTHERS Vs. ZONAL MANAGER, LIFE INSURANCE CORPORATION OF INDIA, KANPUR AND ANOTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are 36 connected writ petitions which relate to the employment of petitioners, who are serving in the life Insurance Corporation of India as Class III and Class IV employees. As the facts and questions of law involved in all the writ petitions are similar, the learned Counsel for the petitioners and respondents in all the writ petitions have made a statement that the writ petitions may be heard together as they are going to advance common arguments in all these writ petitions. The writ petitions have thus been heard together and are being disposed of by a common judgment. Brief admitted facts relevant for the purposes of adjudicating the dispute in the present writ petitions are that the Life Insurance Corporation of India appointed the petitioners as Class III and Class IV employees for a fixed term ranging between 45 days to 85 days on a fixed pay and also obtained a declaration from that they had not been employed earlier at any office of the Life Insurance Corporation of India.

(2.) The main argument advanced by the learned Counsel for the petitioners is that the appointment could not be terminated as the vacancies are still continuing and the Life Insurance Corporation has acted arbitrarily while terminating the appointment of the petitioner and is guilty of unfair labour practice. It has been contended that the Corporation has been adopting the practice of not filling the permanent vacancies and appointing persons only on a fixed term basis for a fixed period, which amounted to unfair labour practice.

(3.) The counsel appearing for the Life Insurance Corporation, however, urged that the fixed term appointments were made because of the pendency of the dispute before the National industrial Tribunal Bombay in Reference No. NTB-1 of 1987 in which an undertaking of the Management was recorded that the Management will not make any appointment from the open market. The Corporation was thus left with no option except to employ petitioners as fixed term employees.