GHULAM NABI BHAT Vs. DEERAJ GUPTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present contempt petition arises on account of nonimplementation of the order passed by a Co-ordinate Bench of this Court dtd. 1/6/2022 in LPA No. 112/2020 titled Union Territory of J&K and Ors. vs. Ghulam Nabi Bhat. The Petitioner seeks initiation of contempt proceedings against the contemnors on account of nonimplementation of the aforementioned order. The contemnors are Mr Deeraj Gupta, presently the Secretary to Government, Forest Department, Mr Mohit Gera, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, J&K Government and Mr. T. Rabi Kumar, Chief Conservator of Forest, Kashmir Region, Srinagar.

(2.) The brief factual background of this case is that the Petitioner came to be engaged in the Forest Department in the year 1993 on casual basis as Watch and Ward. In terms of SRO 64 of 1994, the Petitioner had a right of being regularized after serving for 7 years. However, the Respondents allegedly harassed the Petitioner under one pretext or the other and finally, the Petitioner approached this Court by way of a writ petition being SWP No. 2858/2015 and this Court, taking all the facts and circumstances into consideration, came to the conclusion that the Petitioner had worked from 1993 on the basis of the record annexed with the writ petition. However, the Court directed the Respondents to take the appropriate decision within six weeks. The date of the order is 4/4/17.

(3.) The Petitioner states that in order to delay his claim, the Respondents took the plea that the Petitioner is a casual labourer and hence not entitled to regularization. According to the Petitioner, these pleas were already rejected by this court in the case titled Shahzada Bano vs. State of JK and Ors., which held that casual labourers are to be treated as daily rated workers and, therefore, entitled for regularisation. Besides this, 19 other persons pursued a writ petition titled Mushtaq Ahmed Sohail and Ors. vs. State of J&K and Ors., which was contested by these Respondents on the same ground that the Petitioners in that case being casual workers cannot seek regularization under SRO 64 of 1994. This court allowed the writ petition against which a Letters Patent Appeal was filed by the Respondents herein being LPA No. 33/2010 which was dismissed by the Division Bench vide its order dtd. 5/5/2015, against which, the Respondents preferred a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court being SLP No. 7766/2015 titled State of JK and Ors. vs. Mushtaq Ahmed Sohail and Ors. which SLP also came to be dismissed by the Supreme Court. Consequently, all the 19 writ-Petitioners in that case came to be regularized holding that the casual worker is equally entitled for regularization.