Employment appointments require proper authorization and signatures in meeting minutes to be valid; otherwise, they can be declared void, affecting the entitlement to the position and compensation.

JUDGMENT :

SMITA DAS DE, J.

1. The instant intra-court appeal is preferred by the appellants in W.P. No. 4842(W) of 2017 against an Order dated June 8, 2018 challenging inter alia the order passed by the Learned Single Judge wherein the issue involved encompasses with regard to the denial of joining on the post of Junior Engineer at the office of Divisional Engineer, Berhampore even after accepting the offer of appointment and submission of the joining report.

2. Apropo the facts of the case, the petitioners (being the appellants herein) applied for the post of Junior Engineer in pursuance of an advertisement published on 30.12.2015 by the Managing Director, West Bengal State Minor Irrigation Corporation Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as W.B.S.M.I.C. Ltd. for the sake of brevity and convenience being the Respondent Corporation herein) for filling up the post of the Junior Engineer. The last date of submission of the application was scheduled to be January 15, 2016 but the same was further extended to July 15, 2016 vide notice dated June 27, 2016.

3. From records it appears that on two occasions i.e. on August 4, 2016 and August 31, 2016 the call letters for interview were issued to the appellants fixing the date and time of the interview on August 28, 2016 at 11:30 a.m. and September 15, 2016 at 11 a.m. respectively. Thereafter, on October 17, 2016 and October 21, 2016 the Respondent No. 3 by a letter offered the appellants the post of Junior Engineer on contractual basis for a period of 12 months with the total monthly remuneration of Rs. 18,000/-.

4. On October 25, 2016 the appellants submitted the copy of their joining letter as per the direction of the Managing Director and also informed the same accordingly to the Divisional Engineer stating inter alia that the appellants did not receive the posting order till date. The representation dated October 28, 2016 was made by the appellants before the Divisional Engineer for consideration with regard to the issuance of the posting order. In reply thereto the Divisional Engineer informed the appellants that they shall receive the posting order very shortly.

5. In the meantime, on October 04, 2016, the Meeting no. 159 of the Board of Directors was convened wherein various decisions were taken by the Board of Directors including the appointment of the appellants.

6. The appellants espouses that despite they were selected and empanelled some other candidates were offered the appointment and have been allowed to join who are still working with the approval of the Chairman of the said post. The appellants take the plea of being discriminated for not been given any posting order even after accepting the offer of appointment and submission of joining report. Being aggrieved by this the appellants filed a writ petition before this Hon’ble High Court being W.P. No. 4842 (W) of 2017. The matter was heard at length by the Hon’ble the then Justice Subrata Talukdar on June 8, 2018. The Learned Single Judge was pleased to observe as follows:-

“Accordingly, noticing the weight in the view that the Corporation also may not have continued with the contractual appointment beyond the initial period of 12 months, although the petitioners are not entitled to a restoration of their appointments at this stage, with the expiry of their contractual period in 2017, the petitioners are entitled to be compensated for their loss of earnings for the failure on the part of the Corporation to take their appointments to a logical conclusion.”

Appellant’s contention:-

7. The Learned Counsel on behalf of t