IMPORTANT POINT
Ad hoc appointment - legal rights.

Judgment :-

Dipak Misra, J.

Leave granted in all the special leave petitions.

2. The controversy that arises for consideration in this batch of appeals is whether the respondents, who were appointed to the teaching post, namely, Assistant Professors/Lecturers in different subjects and continued as such for more than two decades, would be entitled to get the benefit of pension under the University Pension Regulations, 1990 (for short “the Regulations”) framed by the University of Rajasthan which came into force with effect from 1.1.1990, regard being had to the language employed in Regulation 2 that deals with the scope and application of the Regulations read with Regulations 22 and 23 that stipulates the conditions of qualifying service and the period that is to be counted towards pension in addition to the fact that the University had accepted the contribution to the Pension Fund as defined in Regulation 3(5), despite the stand and stance put forth by the University that the respondents were not regularly appointed to the posts in question in accordance with the provisions contained in Section 3(3) of the Rajasthan Universities’ Teachers and Officers (Selection for Appointment) Act, 1974 (for brevity “the Act”) and, hence, are not entitled to the benefit provided under the Regulations.

3. Be it noted, as the main judgment was rendered in the case of Prem Lata Agarwal, we shall refer to the facts adumbrated therein. However, the initial dates of appointment and the dates of superannuation in case of every respondent as the same would be relevant in the course of delineation of the lis in question are stated herein. Prem Lata Agarwal, Vijaya Kabra, Janki D. Moorjani, B.K. Joshi and M.C. Goyal, the respondents herein, were appointed on 5.1.1981, 22.8.1984, 20.8.1985, 16.5.1978 and 5.8.1983 and stood superannuated on 31.3.2001, 31.8.2007, 30.6.2007, 31.1.2002 and 30.11.2007 respectively. Respondent-Prem Lata Agarwal and some others were appointed vide Office Order dated 5.1.1981 by the Vice-Chancellor in exercise of power vested in him for making the stop gap arrangement under Section 3(3) of the Act as Assistant Professors (Lecturers) in the subject of Chemistry. It was clearly mentioned in the letter of appointment that it was ad hoc in nature and it would continue upto the last working day of the current academic session or till further orders, whichever was earlier. The respondent and others were allowed to continue on the basis of the appointment letters issued from time to time. It may be noted that their services were terminated every year and fresh appointment orders were issued. In this manner, the respondent was allowed to continue upto 31.7.1988.

4. At that juncture, the ad hoc teachers had invoked the jurisdiction of the High Court seeking a mandamus for the regularization of the services but such a relief was declined. S.L.P. No. 18993 of 1991 was preferred wherein two questions were raised, namely, (i) whether a lecturer duly selected by the selection committee for being appointed temporarily should automatically be confirmed on the post which he was holding for the past 7 years on temporary basis after being selected by a duly constituted selection committee under the provisions of the Act and approved by the syndicate of the university; and (ii) whether apart from the considerations of selection by the selection committee, did a lecturer teaching for the past 7 years acquire a right to continue on that post. This Court vide order dated 20th April, 1992, dismissed the said special leave petition. Though the special leave petition was dismissed and their right to be regularized was not accepted by this Court, yet they continued in service as the orders of termination could not be implemented. It is worth noticing that another petition by ad hoc appointees was filed in 1985 before the High Court wherein they claimed equal pay on the foundation of parity with the regularly appointed Assistant Lecturers. The High Court, vid