Regularise services of lab technicians from date of joining: CAT to PGI

The Chandigarh Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has directed the PGIMER to regularise the services of four ad hoc junior lab technicians from 2006.

The employees had challenged the order of the PGI Director for regularising their services prospectively, and not from the date when they joined the department on an ad hoc basis.

In an application filed through advocate Rohit Seth, the applicants had sought direction to quash the order of the PGI dated May 25, 2018, to the extent it was prospective and not retrospective.

The PGI, through the order, regularised their services following the decision of the governing body.

The applicants said they had joined the PGI on June 29, 2006, on an ad hoc basis against the six vacant positions in the OBC category.

In 2013, the PGI constituted a committee to re-examine the cases of ad hoc employees, who had been working for years, pursuant to their appointment after due selection.

The PGI issued an order dated May 25, 2018, for regularising their service with prospective effect. The petitioners claimed that the decision of the PGI was against the decision of the governing body, and other employees were regularised from the date of joining service.

After hearing the arguments, the Bench comprising Rashmi Saxena Sahni (member A), and Suresh Kumar Batra (member J) said the applicants were not regularised from the date of their initial joining, but at a later date, i.e. May 25, 2018, after a gap of almost 12 years.

“We find that two of the colleagues similarly situated in the same list were made regular on August  11, 2006, itself but we find that the same treatment has not been given to applicants, despite vacancies. We find the shifting stand of respondents in building the narrative against the regularisation of services of applicants from the original date of joining is regrettable and unjustifiable. The regularisation of the applicants, as approved by the governing body vide order dated September 23, 2016, must be retrospective, i.e. from the date of their joining on ad hoc appointment. It is settled law that similarly situated employees should get similar benefits,” the Bench observed.

The tribunal directed the respondents to grant the benefit of retrospective regularisation to the applicants, and while granting them regularisation retrospectively, all consequential benefits, including pay fixation and increments from May 25, 2018, in continuation as well as the arrears of salary or fixation of pay, shall be granted to the applicants. The necessary action shall be completed within eight weeks of the issuance of the order.