RAMDAYAL KARKETTA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) - The 13 writ petitioners who claimed themselves to be the victims of exploitation at the hand of respondents filed this writ application for issuance of appropriate direction upon the respondents to make the services of the petitioners permanent and/or regularised and for the release of the salaries of the petitioners which are due from October, 1994

(2.) Some of the petitioners were appointed under respondent No. 7, B.S. College, Lohardagga in the year 1986 and some were appointed in the year 1987 on daily wages as Grade-IV employees. Thereafter, efforts were made to appoint Grade-IV employees in view of the procedure under Article 16 of the Constitution of India and, accordingly, the advertisement was published on 13-3-1987 in the daily newspaper whereby the Registrar Ranchi University, Ranchi invited applications for appointment/preparatior of panel in Grades-Ill and IV employees for Constituent Colleges under Ranch University including B.S. College Lohardagga. By the said advertisement those employees who were already working on daily wages before March 1987, were also called upon to apply for the said posts under the Ranchi Univer sity. A copy of the advertisement issued by the Registrar, Ranchi University is Annexure 1 to this writ application Pursuant to that the petitioners who were working on daily wages applied for Grade IV posts under respondent No. 7, B.S. College, Lohardagga and accordingly, the Deputy Registrar, Ranchi University issued interview letters to the petitioners directing them to appear before the Interview Board and make themselves present in the campus of B.S. College, Lohardagga on 12-6-1987 in the morning. The petitioners were interviewed on the said date. After the said interview the petitioners waited for about one year for their appointment. Thereafter, on 7-5-1988 appointment letters were issued in the name of the petitioners appointing them on daily I wage basis in the said College. A copy of the appointment letter is Annexure 3 to the writ application. The petitioners, accordingly, joined the B.S. College, which is evident from the joining letter as contained in Annexure 4 to the writ application It is stated by the Petitioners that as they had already worked under the respondent Nos. 4 to 7, they were regularised under the respondents vide letter dated 17-3-90 issued by the Deputy Registrar of the University. A copy of the notification by which the petitioners were regularised is Annexure-5 to the writ application. The petitioners' further case was that respondents made provisional pay fixation as per the Government letter No. 841 dated 13-4-1991, whereby the petitioners' pay were provisionally fixed, which they were receiving till September, 1994. A copy of the letter issued by the Government dated 13-4-1991 is Annexure 6 to the writ application. It appears that in February, 1994 the University by notification dated 22-2-1994 decided to terminate the services of those employees working in Class III and Class IV grade of all the constituent colleges with effect from 1-6-1994 till additional posts are sanctioned by the Government. The said notification said to have been issued in the light of the judgment of the Supreme Court dated 25-9-1991 in W.P. (Civil) No. 409 of 1991. However, the said notification alleged to have never given effect to and the University issued another notification dated 14-5-1994 modifying the earlier notification/order dated 22-2-1994 (Annexure 7) whereby the university extended the period of services by another two months, i.e. 31-7-1994. A copy of the said letter is Annexure 8 to the writ application. by another notification dated 26-7-1994 issued by the University the petitioners were asked to continue in service since they were working for a long time under the Staffing Pattern. It was further stated in the writ application that other employees of Grade-IV who were appointed on the basis of advertisement (Annexure-1) have been regularised on permanent basis by the Ranchi University and they are getting their salaries. The letter of the University by which eight persons were regularised has been filed and marked as Annexure 10 to the writ application. The petitioner's grievance is that although the petitioners have been working since 1988 and still they are working as Grade-IV employees in the said College but their salary has not been said since October, 1994. The University further issued another notification dated 21-1-1995 stating therein that the salary of the petitioners shall be released after funds are made available by the Government and in the said letter they were told that they are working on un-sanctioned posts. The petitioners further brought on record certain more facts by filing reply to the counter-affidavit. Beside other facts it is stated that after the filing counter-affidavit by the University two of the petitioners, namely, petitioner Nos. 2 and 6 were regularised by the University vide memo No. 8248 dated 25-5-19%.

(3.) A counter-affidavit has been filed on behalf of the respondents- University wherein it was stated, inter alia, that the petitioners, claim for regularisation of their services and for payment of salaries from October, 1994 is not maintainable as the petitioners' appointment itself was illegal and was not made against any sanctioned posts and was in complete violation of Section 35 of the Bihar State Universities Act. It was further stated that since the State Government has not sanctioned the required posts under the staffing pattern, the University is unable to regularise their services and as such conditional order of termination has already been passed by the University which is evident from Annexure 7,8 and 9. It was further stated that the syndicate of the University took a decision terminating the services of the petitioners and other on 22-11-1994 which decision was communicated to the Principal of the College vide University letter dated 24-11-1994. A copy of the said letter is Annexure A to the counter-affidavit. Further case of the University was that the Principal of the College has no authority to make any appointment even on daily wage basis. The petitioners and others were engaged on daily wage basis by the order passed by late Dr. Lal Saheb Singh, the then Vice-Chancellor against unsanctioned posts without any authority and without obtaining the approval of the Chancellor of the University. It was further staled that in pursuance of the order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court passed in writ petition (Civil) No. 409 of 1991, several requests were sent to the State Government to sanction additional posts under the staffing pattern for the persons who were working upto 26-4-89. But the posts were not made available for those employees working in the B.S. College and the University had issued Annexures 8 and 9 in the meantime. As per the availability of posts some persons were regularised on the sanctioned posts on the basis of their seniority. The respondent-University brought on record the order passed by the Supreme Court an Annexures B and B/1 to the counter-affidavit. In a nut shell the stand of the University was that the petitioners could not be regularised as no posts have been sanctioned for them. As such the University terminated the services of the petitioners pursuant to the decision taken by the Syndicate on 22-11-1994. However, if additional posts are sanctioned by the State Government the cases of the petitioners can be considered.