P. LALROTLUANGI Vs. STATE OF MIZORAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. A.R. Malhotra, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mrs. H. Lalmalsawmi, learned Government Advocate for the respondent Nos. 1 to 5. None appears for the respondent Nos. 6 to 9 despite notice. Vide Order dtd. 10/5/2023, notice was declared to be complete upon all the private respondents. Having regard to the nature of the case projected by the petitioner, the writ petition is taken up for disposal at this stage.

(2.) The case of the petitioner is that she was initially engaged as Muster Roll (MR) Lower Division Clerk (LDC) on 10/1/1996 without the approval of the Government. She continued to work as such under the respondent No. 5 until she came to be engaged with the approval of the Government in the DP&AR and in the Finance Department through Engagement Card dtd. 23/4/2012. She was first engaged for the period w.e.f. 1/3/2012 to 28/2/2013 and thereafter, her engagement was extended from time to time and till date. According to the petitioner, the State respondents, vide Office Memorandum dtd. 29/5/2018 provisionally fixed the inter se seniority of MR LDC employees, wherein the petitioner was placed at Serial No. 3 while the private respondent Nos. 6, 7, 8 and 9 were placed at Serial Nos. 4, 5, 6 and 7.

(3.) It is the case of the petitioner that the Government of Mizoram framed the Scheme on Regularization of Muster Roll Employees in the year 2000, vide Notification dtd. 23/3/2000. The regularization of MR Employees Scheme was thereafter amended from time to time and the scheme in vogue currently is the Government of Mizoram Regularization of Muster Roll Employees Scheme, 2018 (MR Regularization Scheme). As per Clause 4 of the MR Regularization Scheme, any person who has been continuously engaged on Muster Roll capacity for not less than 7 years as per paragraph No. 3 of the Scheme shall be eligible for regularization to the corresponding post subject to having requisite educational and other qualifications and having the appropriate benchmark in their performance reports for 5 preceding years and having the appropriate seniority. It is further provided that the regularization shall be made against 35% of the direct recruitment quota in the corresponding post. Clause 6 of the MR Regularization Scheme provides that the upper age limit of a Muster Roll employee being considered for regularization can be condoned subject to the employee not being already over-aged at the time of initial engagement.