The main legal point established in the judgment is that the appellants had no indefeasible right to continue in the posts of Store Keeper/LDA, and the reversion from these posts to SW and BHW posts was justified.

1. These writ appeals are filed by the writ petitioners (appellants herein) being aggrieved with the judgment & order dated 09.03.2021 passed by the learned Single Judge in WP(C) No.235/2017 and other connected writ petitions, whereby the learned Single Judge has dismissed the writ petitions. However, while dismissing the said writ petitions, the learned Single Judge has issued a direction that none of the appellants/writ petitioners should be deprived of their seniority from the original dates of their posting as Surveillance Worker and Basic Health Worker (hereinafter to be referred as “SW and BHW”, respectively) and has also observed that such seniority shall be restored on the date from which the appellants/writ petitioners would render their service in the substantial posts of SW and BHW.

2. The brief facts of the case are that the appellants/ writ petitioners were appointed as SW and BHW under a particular Scheme known as “National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP)” on different dates running from the year 1995 to 2009. Subsequently, on their own request, the appellants/writ petitioners were posted as Store Keepers/LDAs in the same Pay Scale of SW and BHW at various places on different dates. The respondent State, vide orders issued on 30.11.2016, 12.12.2016 and 20.02.2017, has ordered for reversion of the appellants/writ petitioners to the posts of SW and BHW, on which they were initially appointed.

3. Aggrieved by the said reversion, the appellants/ writ petitioners have approached this Court by way of filing the aforesaid writ petitions on several grounds. The main grounds on which the challenge were made by the appellants/writ petitioners are noted down by the learned Single Judge in Paragraph 14 of the impugned judgment & order. The learned Single Judge, after hearing the counsel for the respective parties has held that the appellants/writ petitioners, initially appointed as SW and BHW, have no indefeasible right to continue in the posts of Store Keeper and LDA. The findings recorded by the learned Single Judge to arrive at the said conclusion are reproduced here as under:-

“28. This Court has given its anxious consideration to the rival contentions of the learned counsel for the parties. The core issue which requires determination is as to whether the action of bringing back the petitioners to their original posts of SW/BHW is justified. To answer the said issue, it is necessary to remind ourselves that the post of SW is a post under a particular programme, namely, NVBDCP and is not a cadre post under the Service Rules of the Health Department. The relevant point which is required to be noted is that the subsequent postings of the petitioners as Store Keepers/LDAs were in the same scale of pay of SW/BHW and therefore, cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be treated to be a promotion. In any event, the post of SW being an ex-cadre post, promotion cannot be envisaged. The action of the authorities in permitting the petitioners to discharge duties as Store Keeper/LDA in the same scale of pay was mostly out of the own request of the petitioners and due to administrative convenience and by that, no indefeasible right to continue in the said post of Store Keeper/LDA has vested upon the petitioners.”

4. Dealing with the ground of violation of the principles of natural justice, the learned Single Judge, while relying on the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court rendered in the case of Aligarh Muslim University & Ors. -Vs- Mansoor Ali Khan, reported in (2000) 7 SCC 529, has rejected the same by observing that adherence to the principles of natural justice would only amount to a ‘useless formality’. The learned Single Judge has also observed that since the regular process of appointment to the rank of Store Keeper/LDA is prescribed in the Rules and the appellants/writ petitioners not being borne in the said cadre of Store Keeper/LDA by undergoing recruitment process, no right, whatsoever has accrued upon them