news details |
|
|
| Engaged after Govt ban, not entitled to regularization: HC | | From The Court | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 3: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has ruled that daily wagers engaged in violation of the 2015 government ban on new appointments cannot claim regularisation under SRO 520 of 2017. Dismissing two connected writ petitions filed by Nazir Ahmad Bhat and others, the court observed that the petitioners were not on the official muster rolls and that their engagement records had been fabricated after the ban.
Justice Javed Iqbal Wani, while delivering the judgment, noted that the petitioners had “failed to demonstrate any infringement of legal or fundamental rights” that would justify invoking the court’s extraordinary writ jurisdiction. “The findings of the inquiry committee clearly establish that the petitioners do not exist on the regular wage lists, and their CVs were drawn after the imposition of the ban,” the judge held.
According to the case records, a committee constituted by the Managing Director of the Power Development Department (PDD) in July 2022 had conducted a detailed verification of engagement records in the Sub-Transmission Division (STD), Ganderbal.
The committee, headed by the Superintending Engineer (O&M Circle), found that 128 persons, including the petitioners, were not listed on the division’s muster rolls.
The inquiry, completed in April 2023 and accepted by the Administrative Department in May 2024, confirmed that 465 daily-rated, need-based, and PDL/TDL workers were physically working in the division and receiving wages — excluding the petitioners.
The petitioners had argued that they were engaged between 2012 and 2015, before the government imposed a ban on such appointments through Order No. 43-F of 2015 dated March 17, 2015. They alleged that their names were arbitrarily dropped from a list of 472 workers forwarded in 2021 for regularisation under SRO 520, and that 37 ineligible candidates were included in their place through “backdoor means.”
Rejecting the claims, the government argued that the petitioners’ engagement records were fabricated post-ban and that none of them were currently working on daily wage rolls. Justice Wani agreed, noting that the petitioners had neither challenged the inquiry report nor provided evidence of continuous service.
“The respondents cannot be said to have acted illegally or arbitrarily when the inquiry report, duly verified and accepted by the competent authority, conclusively established that the petitioners were not on rolls,” the court said, dismissing both petitions and all connected applications.
SRO 520 of 2017 was introduced by the Jammu & Kashmir government to provide a framework for the regularisation of daily-rated, casual, and need-based workers who had completed seven years of service. The policy, however, applies only to those whose engagement was verifiable, continuous, and made before the 2015 recruitment ban. (JNF) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
