The central legal point established in the judgment is that the appointment of the Petitioner as a Trainee Engineer was temporary in nature, aimed at providing practical experience and exposure, and not akin to contractual employment against a sanctioned post.

JUDGMENT

Jyoti Singh, J. - Present petition has been filed seeking a direction to the Respondent to continue the Petitioner on contractual basis as Trainee Engineer and not replace him with a similarly situated contractual employee.

2. Court is once again faced with the legal issue of replacement of one contractual employee with another contractual employee in the present case, which has come up time and again before the Courts and in my view the law on this is well settled.

3. The brief facts which need to be mentioned can be encapsulated as under:-

a. Petitioner herein is a Post Graduate with M.Sc. in Environmental Science, a Degree he acquired in May, 2016. The Respondent/Delhi Pollution Control Committee came into existence on 01.06.1991 and is an Autonomous Body to which the powers were delegated by the Central Pollution Control Board under Section 4 (4) of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Section 6 of the Air Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

b. Petitioner applied against the vacancy of Trainee Engineer published by the Respondent in the year 2017, wherein one of the qualifications for the said Post was M.Sc. on a full time regular basis from a recognized University. Petitioner received a letter dated 14.02.2017 informing him that the interview for the selection of Trainees would be conducted by the Selection Committee on 21.02.2017. It was also mentioned that the selection was for a period of six months on a fixed remuneration and purely on temporary basis.

c. On successfully clearing the interview, Petitioner was selected as a Trainee on 28.06.2017 for a period of six months and an offer letter dated 04.07.2017 was issued by the Respondent. The period of training was to terminate automatically on the expiry of six months unless extended by the Competent Authority and the Petitioner was to be paid a stipend of Rs. 15,000/- per month during the training period.

d. On receipt of the offer letter, the Petitioner joined the Respondent and vide Office Order dated 25.07.2017 he was Posted in CMC-II cell. It is the case of the Petitioner that after he joined, he was informed that as per practice and norm in the Department, the Petitioner''s initial tenure would be continued after a notional break of one day and he would be entitled to continue in this manner for a period of three years. Petitioner thereafter continued to do the work assigned to him by the Senior Officers with dedication and sincerity. Vide Officer Order dated 11.05.2018 he was transferred from Department of CMC-III to Water Lab Department and even there, he performed his duties diligently and his tenure was extended from time to time after expiry of every six months with one day notional break.

e. Vide order dated 12.02.2020 the Respondent further extended the tenure of the Petitioner for six months w.e.f. 14.01.2020 indicating in the order that he had successfully completed the tenure of 30 months and the extension was on a stipend of Rs. 28,000/- per month. Respondent also, on the asking of the Petitioner, on 12.03.2019 had issued an experience certificate in favour of the Petitioner certifying that he had been working in the organization as a Trainee from 06.07.2017.

f. On 13.03.2020 the Respondent published a vacancy notice for 17 posts and invited applications for engagement of Trainee Engineer on stipend basis wherein the qualification sought were B.E/B.Tech/M.Sc./MCA with First Division on full time regular basis from a recognized University/Institution. The vacancy notice was also for the post on which the Petitioner was continuing as a Trainee. The Petitioner in the meantime appeared for improvement in certain subjects in M.Sc. (Environment Science) in May, 2019 and secured a First Division and became eligible for applying against the said vacancy notice. However, he was debarred from applying as according to the Administrative Department of the Respondent, a Trainee could not re-apply, having been appointed o