The judgment emphasizes the importance of regular recruitment processes and the limitations on regularization of employees in public institutions.

CM No. 19916/2016 (for restoration) and CM No. 19917/2016 (for condonation of delay of 1306 days in filing the restoration application) Though there is a huge delay of 1306 days in filing these applications for restoration and condonation of delay, and though there is no ground for restoration, but since I have heard arguments on merits, these applications are allowed and the writ petition is restored to its original number.

The applications stand disposed of.

W.P.(C) No. 1742/2010

1. By this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, petitioners seek the relief of their being regularized in the services of Inter University Accelerator Centre, originally called Nuclear Science Centre. Petitioners claim that they were appointed as Receptionists in the Guest House-cum-Hostel of Nuclear Science Centre.

2. A reading of the writ petition shows that petitioners were never the employees of Nuclear Science Centre but were employees of contractors to whom jobs were outsourced by the Nuclear Science Centre. This becomes clear and is found to be admitted by the petitioners themselves from paras 3.2 and 3.3 of the writ petition and which paras read as under:-

“3.2 That the petitioners were appointed alongwith others by the Management of Nuclear Science Centre itself but after appointment were placed under the contractors appointed from time to time.

3.3 That the petitioners continued to work on interruptedly for No. of years as the work performed by them was of permanent and perennial nature. The respondents placed the petitioners under various contractors some of them not even registered under the Contract Labour (Abolition & Regularisation) Act 1970. For example a contractor B.K.Suddan, under whom the services of the petitioners were placed was not even registered. Another contractor Help line Hospitality was introduced in 1998 and the services of the petitioners were placed under it. This was also not a registered contractor and the same was only introduced for the purpose of disbursing the salary to the petitioners and other similarly situated employees.”

3. No document whatsoever has been filed by the petitioners to show that they were employees of the Nuclear Science Centre/respondent no.3, and therefore, since petitioners were only employees of private contractors, this writ petition will not lie in this Court because petitioners were employees of private contractors and at no point of time petitioners were direct employees of Nuclear Science Centre/respondent no.3.

4. I have gone through various other pleadings in the writ petition which show that certain earlier writ petitions were filed by the petitioners and in such writ petitions this Court passed certain orders, however, those writ petitions were filed and orders passed on account of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970. In none of these earlier writ petitions any orders have been passed, which hold that the petitioners were not the employees of private contractors, but were employees of Nuclear Science Centre/respondent no.3.

5. Besides the above reason for dismissing of the writ petition as petitioners were never the employees of Nuclear Science Centre/respondent no.3 but were only the employees of private contractors and hence the writ petition is not maintainable against Nuclear Science Centre/respondent no.3, even if the writ petition was filed against Nuclear Science Centre/respondent no.3 for regularization of petitioners and taking hypothetically employees of Nuclear Science Centre/respondent no.3, the services of the petitioners cannot be regularized in view of the ratio of the Constitution Bench judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Secretary, State of Karnataka & Others vs. Umadevi & Others, (2006) 4 SCC 1, which lays down the following ratio:-

“(I) The questions to be asked before regularization are:- (a)(i) Was there a sanctioned post (court cannot order creation of posts because finances of the state may go