RAJINDER KUMAR Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On account of common questions of facts and law and the view taken by the Constitution Bench judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Secretary, State of Karnataka and Ors. v. Umadevi and Ors. , we propose to decide these bunch of petitions, namely. C.W.P. Nos. 7563 of 2005, 7334 of 2005, 7569 of 2005, 728 of 2006, 1210 of 2006, 5651 of 2006, 5771 of 2006 and 5772 of 2006, by a common order. However, the facts arc mentioned mainly from two petitions i.e. C.W.P. Nos. 7563 of 2005 and 5771 of 2006. In C.W.P. No. 7563 of 2005, the petitioner has made prayer for quashing order dated 3.12.2004 (P-6) rejecting his demand justice notice on the ground that he was not in service prior to 31.1.1996 and he joined service as Tractor Driver on 1.5.1996.

(2.) Brief facts of the case are that the petitioner was appointed as a Tractor Driver on daily wage basis on 1.5.1996. His services were terminated on 30.11.1997. He approached the Labour Court and vide award dated 18.5.2001 (P-I), the Labour Court set aside his termination. He was granted continuity of service with full back wages. Thereafter, the respondents filed C.W.P. No. 9713 of 2002 against the aforementioned award, which has been admitted on 7.3.2002 without any interim directions. Accordingly, the respondents have paid the petitioner his back wages. On a reference received by the respondents, the case of the petitioner for. regularization of his services was considered by keeping in view the policy of the State Government, dated 1.10.2003 (P-4). Accordingly, it has been found that he did not fulfill the requirement of the policy as he was not appointed prior to 31.1.1996. It is appropriate to mention that the petitioner has placed reliance on policy instructions dated 7.3.1996, 18.3.1996 and 1.10.2003 (P-2, P-3 & P-4 respectively) beside challenging the constitutional validity of the policy instructions dated 10.2.2004 (P-5), which in fact is an amendment in the policy instructions dated 1.10.2003 (P-4). According to the amendment made on 10.2.2004 (P-5) in the policy instructions dated 1.10.2003 (P-4) only those daily wage employees who had completed three years of service on 30.9.2003 were to be regularised, subject to the condition that they were in service prior to 30.1.1996. The principal challenge is that once a period of three years for regularization of service of a daily wager has been laid down then fixing a date of coming in employment of preceding 7 years is unfair and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

(3.) In C.W.P. No. 5771 of 2006, the petitioner, who was a Matriculate, has joined as a Water Pump Operator, Grade-II on 1.7.1992 in the Public Health Division, Kaithal. He worked as such up to 31.3.1994. Thereafter with effect from 1.4.1994 he was shifted as Mali-cum-Chowkidar. The prayer made in the aforementioned petition is for regularization of services of the petitioner by placing reliance on policy instructions dated 7.3.1996 (P-1) stating that those who have completed five years of service as on 31.1.1996 and were in. 'service on that date were entitled to be regularised on Class-Ill posts provided that they fulfill the requisite qualification. If a post in Class-Ill was not available then they were to be considered for regularization on a Class-IV post. On 18.3.1996 (P-2) another set of instructions were issued reducing the period of five years to three years of service by maintaining all other conditions. The services of the petitioner has been regularised on the post of Mali-cum-Chowkidar and his claim for regularization on the post of Water Pump Operator, Grade-II appears to have been rejected on 24.10.2005 (P-4). He filed C.W.P. No. 13394 of 2005, which was disposed of with a direction to the respondents to take a decision on the representation made by him and to pass a reasoned order. The representation has been considered by concluding that the petitioner had joined Public Health Department on 1.1.1991 as Water Pump Operator as a daily wager and continued as such up to 31.7.1991. He was again engaged on daily wage basis on 1.8.1991 and continued in service as such. His services were regularised with effect from 1.2.1996 as he was found working as Mali-cum-Chowkidar. The petitioner is only matriculate and do not satisfy the qualification required for the post of Water Pump Operator. Therefore, his claim for regularization on the post of Water Pump Operator was rejected. The other petitions are similar in facts, contents and the policies.