The main legal point established in the judgment is that the regularization of services should be made under the statutory rules and the services rendered earlier on a daily wage basis will not be recognized as service under the State Government for any purpose.

JUDGMENT :

HARISH KUMAR, J.

The Challenge in the present Letters Patent Appeal is to the order/judgment dated 01.12.2017 passed by the learned Single Judge in C.W.J.C. No. 12 of 2017, wherein the prayer of the writ petitioners-appellants herein for regularization of their services with effect from the date of initial appointment has been turned down.

2. Undisputedly, all the four appellants have been regularized in service vide order as contained in Memo No. 646 dated 04.03.2016 issued by the Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department, Bhagalpur. However, being aggrieved to the extent whereby the order makes the regularization prospective and not from the date of their initial appointments or at least with effect from 01.02.1999 when they were granted minimum scale of pay to Class-IV employees in the light of the judgment and order passed by this Court in a batch of writ petitions vide C.W.J.C. No. 12 of 2017.

3. Before considering the propriety of the order under appeal, the matrix of the fact for proper appreciation of the issue is/are that the writ petitioners-appellants were working on daily rate worker under Water Resources Department and they were getting wages on daily rate basis since their engagement. Since the writ petitioners have been continuously working on daily rate for several years, but their cases could not be considered for regularization approached before this Court for their absorption/regularization. However, the writ petition having been dismissed by the learned Single Judge, some of the petitioners and others filed different Letters Patent Appeal, which was disposed of vide order dated 18.09.1996 with the direction that “the appellants and all other similarly situated employees should be paid their salary in the lowest stage of the time scale of pay admissible to the respective posts on which they are working.” Later on, after series of litigation by different daily rate workers, the writ petitioners-appellants have also been allowed minimum time scale of pay vide order dated 16.06.1999. Subsequently, on being aggrieved by the inaction on the respondents-State authority in not taking steps for regularization of writ petitioners-appellants, the writ petitioners-appellants again knocked the door of this Court in C.W.J.C. No. 1373 of 2014, which was disposed of on 13.02.2015 with a direction to the Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department to consider their claim for regularization and for passing appropriate order. Whereupon, the order bearing Memo No. 646 dated 04.03.2016 came to be passed, which order was assailed to the extent whereby the writ petitioners-appellants have been regularized from the date of their joining.

4. The learned Single Judge while considering the case of the writ petitioners-appellants herein has been pleased to hold as follows:

“The issue argued by Mr. Sharma, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners stands answered in the judgment of the Supreme Court reported in (2005) 13 SCC 246 (Punjab State Electricity Board Vs. Swaran Singh) wherein it has been held that normally regularization would be prospective in effect and not from the date of initial appointment. Even otherwise the very circular under which these petitioners have been regularized i.e. circular dated 16.3.2006 very clearly stipulates that the order of regularization would be prospective in nature. The comparison made by the petitioner with the employees of the Work Charge establishment is thus totally out of context for the two cases have no parity.

In the circumstances discussed no cause for indulgence is made out. The writ petition is dismissed.”

5. The appellants have assailed the order of the learned Single Judge, inter alia, on the ground that the learned Single Judge, while adjudicating the writ petition failed to appreciate that the writ petitioners-appellants were granted minimum time scale w.e.f. 01.02.1999 and many juniors to the writ petitioners-appellants have been regularized much earlier. It is also the s