The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement to consider the regularization of the petitioner's services in line with previous judgments and the directions issued by the court.

ORDER :

1. Heard Mr. Tirthraj Pandya, learned AGP for the appellants.

2. Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied by the judgment and order dated 05.04.2021 passed in SCA No. 8601 of 2012, the State and its authorities have preferred this intra court appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent.

3. The Roads and Buildings Department of the State of Gujarat gave advertisement on 03.03.2001 for inviting application for the post of Assistant Engineer, pursuant to which the Respondent-Original Petitioner applied for the same to on 30.05.2001. After oral interview on 11.03.2001, the original petitioner came to be appointed on 01.06.2001, initially for a period of 9 months on fixed pay of Rs. 5,000/- per month. It is a matter of record that such posts were filled up by the appellant-authorities to see that post earthquake, the work can be carried out in different talukas of Kachchh District, which had experienced devastating earthquake.

4. It is the case of the Respondent-Original Petitioner that services of similarly situated employees who were appointed along with the Respondent-Original Petitioner have been regularised. Reliance was placed on the judgment of this Court in the case of Rapar Area Development Authority in SCA No. 16634 of 2012. The learned Single Judge has observed thus:

“12. Therefore, as discussed hereinabove, the petitioner being found eligible in all respect was appointed by duly constituted Selection Committee of Chairman and Superintendent (Roads and Buildings) Circle Ghandinagar. Besides, this Court, in similar set of facts, has directed regularization of the service of the employees. One such order is dated 21.12.2009 rendered in Special Civil Application No. 9523 of 2009. In another oral judgment dated 26.9.2014, in the case of Dipesh Bharatbhai Joshi vs. State of Gujarat, rendered in Civil Application No. 10457 of 2014 in Special Civil Application No. 11020 of 2010, this Court has directed regularization of the service. Paragraphs 2 and 3 whereof, read as under:

“2. Having considered the rival contentions there does not appear to be a dispute on the fact that the petitioners were appointed through set recruitment procedure as Surveyors w.e.f. 15th June 2004. In the Civil Application an order dated 30th October 2013 regularising various similarly situated Surveyors has been produced and there does not appear to be a serious dispute that the petitioners also can be regularised in terms of the said order. Even otherwise this Court has been consistent in its view that regularly selected employees cannot be continued for long on contractual, ad-hoc or temporary basis and they are required to be regularised. Even in Secretary, State of Karnataka and Others vs. Umadevi and Others, AIR 2006 SC 1806, the Apex Court emphasised the need for regularisation of such employees and deprecated the practice of making appointments on permanent post on contractual or on ad-hoc basis for long time.

3. In above view of the matter the petition is required to be allowed partly as submitted by learned counsel for the petitioner, to an effect that the petitioner will be regularised not from the date of inception in service but from the date his juniors were regularised. Accordingly the petition is partly allowed in above terms and the petitioner shall be regularised in terms of the order dated 30th October 2013. The decision to regularise the petitioner will be taken by the respondent preferably within a period of six weeks from today. Rule is made absolute to the above extent. Direct service is permitted.”

13. In paragraph 2, there is a reference of order dated 30.10.2013 whereby service of various surveyors has been regularized. Following the aforesaid two judgments, this Court vide judgment dated 23.2.2016 has directed the State Government to regularize the service of the petitioner therein. The petitioner therein was appointed pursuant to the very same advertisement issued in the local daily newspaper on the post of Additional Engineer (Civi