BANDNA KUMARI Vs. BHAKRA BEAS MANAGEMENT BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Aggrieved by the order of her termination dated 30.10.2017 (Annexure P-8), the petitioner has filed the instant petition for the grant of following substantive reliefs:

(2.) On 9.4.2015, the petitioner was engaged as "School Mother" in BSL Senior Secondary School, Slapper, District Mandi, H.P. . as a part time worker for discharging the duties for duration of four hours in a day during the school time. At that time, the sanction available from the Chief Engineer was for engagement of two part time School Mothers, out of which, the petitioner was engaged against one sanction, as such, for short spell of 89 days with intermittent breaks till and including the month of March, 2017. The petitioner had voluntarily accepted her engagement as School Mother. However, in March, 2017, the services of the petitioner had to be engaged due to non- sanction of part-time engagement for the work of School Mother. Thereafter, taking a sympathetic view, the respondent adjusted the services of the petitioner and engaged her as a Lab Assistant on part time basis in the month of April, 2017 and continued as such till August, 2017. But thereafter the services of the petitioner were terminated on 30.10.2017, constraining her to file the instant petition.

(3.) The moot question is whether the petitioner has any right to file the instant petition. For there is a clear distinction between public employment governed by statutory rules and private employment governed purely by contract. The test for deciding the nature of relief "damages or reinstatement with consequential relief" is whether the employment is governed purely by contract or by a statute or statutory rules. Even where the employer is a statutory body, where the relationship is purely governed by contract with no element of statutory governance, the contract of personal service will not be specifically enforceable. Conversely, where the employer is a non-statutory body, but the employment is governed by a statute or statutory rules, a declaration that the termination is null and void and that the employee should be reinstated can be granted by Courts. (Refer : Dr. S.Dutt vs. University of Delhi , AIR 1958 SC 1050; Executive Committee of U.P. State Warehousing Corporation Ltd. vs. Chandra Kiran Tyagi 1970 (2) SCR 250; Sirsi Municipality vs. Cecelia Kom Francies Tellis 1973 (3) SCR 348, Executive Committee of Vaish Degree College vs. Lakshmi Narain 1976 (2) SCR 1006; Smt. J. Tiwari vs. Smt. Jawala Devi Vidya Mandir AIR 1981 SC 122 and Dipak Kumar Biswas vs. Director of Public Instruction AIR 1987 SC 1422).