SWARAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF J&K AND ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner claims to be a Daily Rated Worker in the department of Public Health Engineering since 1992, which is disputed by learned counsel for the respondents by stating that petitioner was engaged in the year 1996. Be that as it may, at the first instance petitioner seeks benefit of appointment on the ground that 50% of agricultural land belonging to the family of the petitioner was acquired by the respondents in the year 1992 for construction of a Tube-Well, therefore, he was entitled for appointment on the basis of SRO 181 of 1988. However, the said plea was rejected by the respondent No. 2-Chief Engineer, PHE, Department vide his letter dated 8th may, 2002 by holding that petitioner donated the land voluntarily which is less than 50% of his total land and SRO 181 was withdrawn in 1991 whereas the land was acquired in the year 1992, therefore, petitioner was not eligible for appointment. The aforesaid rejection order was challenged in SWP No. 1572/2001. The objection of the respondents appears to be justified, because SRO 181 of 1988 comes with a shelf life and that period has already expired and that the petitioner was not qualified because land was donated subsequently and he does not fall within that criteria. The alternate prayer of the petitioner is that he should be considered for regularization in terms of Jammu and Kashmir Daily Rated Workers/Work-charged employees (Regularization) Rules, 1994 notified vide SRO 64 and in terms of Govt. order dated 06.11.2001, wherein it is accorded that under Jammu and Kashmir Daily Rated Workers/Work-charged employees (Regularization) Rules, 1994 the daily rated workers who were engaged prior to 31.01.1991 were eligible for regularization after completing seven years of continuous service.

(2.) Petitioner challenge the order of respondent No. 2- Chief Engineer who declined to grant benefit of SRO 181 dated 03.06.1998 in lieu of land donated on the ground that he did not come within the criteria that is to say that SRO 181 came to an end in the year 1991. In the present case, the petitioner was appointed only in the year 1996 as per the respondents-department. However, the authority fail to consider the claim of the petitioner for regularization in terms of Jammu and Kashmir Daily Rated Workers/ Work-charged employees (Regularization) Rules, 1994 and in terms of SRO 64 of 1994 amended by Govt. order No. 1285-GAD dated 06.11.2001. The issue raised by the petitioner is covered by the judgments rendered by the Hon'ble Division Bench of this Court in LPASW 33/2010 titled State of J&K and ors vs. Mushtaq Ahmed Sohail and ors, 2013 1 SriLJ 73 and LPASW No. 115/2002 and connected matters decided on 25.02.2015.

(3.) In LPASW No. 33/2010, the Hon'ble Division Bench has held that:-