ARUN KUMAR DAS Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Petitioner, who was appointed on contractual basis as a Co -operative Education Instructor in the National Cooperative Union of India ('NCUI' in short) Field Project at Angul, has filed this Writ Petition with a prayer to quash the Office Memorandum dated 13.06.2006 issued by OP No. 3 -Chief Executive of NCUI vide Annexure -12 by which he was allowed to work in the said Project till 31.07.2006 only, after which his term would stand expired automatically and in no case his services would be required any more.

(2.) THIS Writ Petition was filed on 14.07.2006 and notice was issued on 20.07.2006 on the Writ Petition as well as on the stay petition. Interim order was passed on 31.07.2006 to maintain status quo as on that date in respect of the service of the Petitioner till the next date and the said order is continuing.

(3.) OPPOSITE Parties 2, 3 and 4, i.e., the NCUI, the Chief Executive, NCUI and the Chairman, Project Coordination Committee, Orissa of NCUI flied their respective counter affidavits taking a stand that as per the decision of the Government of India the grant -in -aid is being reduced by 20% each year on sun -set basis for which it was decided to run rest of the projects with reduced strength and by closing down five projects and Angul was one such project which was declared to be closed in order to meet the financial crisis. In the counter affidavit, OP No. 4 has further stated that the decision to close down the Angul Project is neither arbitrary nor illegal but it is within the discretion of the authority to reduce/increase the strength of projects so also the employees. Further, the appointment of the Petitioner in the project being contractual and purely on temporary basis, the decision to terminate the services of the Petitioner consequent upon the decision to close down the project due to financial constraint is legal and justified.