MUSHTAQ AHMAD KHAN Vs. UNION TERRITORY OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners are aggrieved of the Government Order No. 22-JK(JSD) of 2021 dtd. 25/1/2021 ['impugned order'], whereby the claim of the petitioners for being engaged as casual labourers, considered in terms of order dtd. 30/1/1999 passed by this Court in SWP No. 123/2019, has been found to be bereft of any merit and accordingly, rejected.

(2.) Briefly put, facts, as projected in this petition by the petitioners, are that vide advertisement notification dtd. 27/7/2006, the Superintending Engineer, PHE Mechanical Circle South, Srinagar invited applications from ITI trained plumbers for engagement as casual/seasonal labourers purely on need basis. This advertisement notification, it is contended, was issued by the Superintending Engineer concerned having regard to the authorization given by the Government in terms of proviso to Rule 7 of SRO 64 of 1994. This authorization in favour of PHE/Irrigation and Flood Control along with Agricultural Production Department, Public Works Department and Power Development Department was given by the Government vide Order No. 239-F of 2005 dtd. 29/11/2005. The petitioners claiming to be the ITI trained plumbers submitted their application forms to the respondents. Before the respondents could consider and engage the petitioners, various complaints poured in with reference to authenticity of Plumber Trade Certificates produced by many candidates. So much so, even FIR bearing No. 31/2007 under Sec. 420, 468, 471 RPC also came to be registered. It is submitted that the Investigating Officer could only find ITI certificates of nine candidates as fake and forged. Accordingly, charge-sheet against nine candidates was filed before the Judicial Magistrate (Sub Judge), Baramulla.

(3.) The contention of the petitioners is that their certificates were found to be genuine. Despite certificates of the petitioners having been found/declared genuine by the Crime Branch, services of the petitioners were not utilized by the respondents constraining the petitioners to file SWP No. 1240/2007 titled PHE Plumber Trade Union District Baramulla v. State of J&K and others, which was disposed of by a Bench of this Court on 27/9/2007 giving liberty to the petitioners to project their grievance before the competent authority by way of representation with a further direction to the competent authority to dispose of the same with due dispatch provided the petitioners were in position under a valid order of engagement as skilled labour. It is submitted that in the above writ petition, apart from the petitioners, there were 180 other candidates belonging to PHE Division Hydraulic Uri. The grievance of the petitioners was considered and disposed of by the respondents by passing a consideration order on 28/3/2013, whereby the Executive Engineers of Hydraulic Division Baramulla and Uri were asked to take steps for implementation of directions of the Court and to initiate the process of verification as per the procedure in vogue for engagement of ITI trained plumbers as casual labourers on need basis subject to confirmation by the Chief Engineer, PHE Srinagar.