New Delhi, May 20
Adding another chapter to the jurisprudence on regularising the services of employees in government sector where the procedure for appointment is well defined, the Supreme Court has ruled that a person who obtained recruitment on contractual basis cannot claim permanent absorption.
While laying down the law on the strength of rulings given by the apex court earlier, including the resent judgement by a five-judge Constitution Bench that daily wagers cannot claim automatic regularisation, a Bench of Mr Justice S B Sinha and Mr Justice S H Kapadia set aside the orders of various high courts asking National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL) to regularise the services of 52 employees, engaged by it on contract in 1991 in different regions of the country.
Citing the standards laid down by the court in its various judgements over the years on the issue, the Bench said “the appointments of respondent employees are illegal. They do not, thus, have any legal right to continue in service.”
The 52 employees engaged by the NFL, were ordered to be regularised by the High Courts of Punjab and Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh after they had filed petitions for their regularisation when the public sector undertaking went on recruitment drive in 1994 to fill certain vacant posts of different categories of employees.
Allowing NFL’s appeal, the apex court said it was true that the employees had been working for a long time but neither they held any post, nor were paid any wages on a regular scale.
