Contractual employees appointed by government, serving continuously over years on perennial work, entitled to regularization per policy despite salary from external funds or unilateral designation changes, to prevent discrimination and exploitation.

JUDGMENT :

Satyen Vaidya, J.

The instant petition has been filed for the following substantive reliefs:

“i) That the impugned order dated 19.12.2017 (Annexure A-13) may be quashed and set aside and the respondents may be further directed to regularize the services of the applicant w.e.f. 01.04.2017 with all consequential benefits.”

2. The petitioner is seeking regularization of her services in terms of Government notification dated 04.05.2017, Annexure A-8, on completion of three years of contract services. Earlier also the petitioner had approached the erstwhile Himachal Pradesh Administrative Tribunal by way of Original Application No. 2907 of 2017, which was disposed of vide order dated 12.07.2017 with direction to the respondents to consider the case of petitioner for regularization in light of policy/instruction dated 04.05.2017. In compliance, the consideration order was passed by the Special Secretary (Health) to the Government of Himachal Pradesh on 19.12.2017, Annexure A-13, whereby the prayer of the petitioner for regularization has been rejected. Hence this petition.

3. The petitioner was appointed as Medical Officer vide notification dated 14.09.2012, Annexure A-4, on contract basis at fixed remuneration of Rs.26,250/- lumpsum per month plus incentive as admissible vide letter dated 21.07.2012 to be made from National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). The petitioner was posted in NRHM, at Shimla.

4. The aforesaid appointment of the petitioner was result of her participation in an interview conducted by the Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Himachal Pradesh.

5. An agreement was executed between the petitioner and the Government of Himachal Pradesh on 11.10.2012 evidencing the contract appointment of petitioner for a period of one year. On 20.09.2012, the post of petitioner was designated as OSD (Training). The petitioner was asked to manage day-to-day training programme in the NRHM with immediate effect. Thereafter, the petitioner was transferred to District Kangra at Dharamshala on 16.04.2013 and was posted in the office of the Chief Medical Officer, Kangra as Programme Officer under NRHM. Later, vide notification/office order dated 14.06.2013, a clarification was issued whereby the designation of the petitioner was changed as NRHM Consultant and her salaries and allowances were held to be provisioned from NRHM funds @ Rs.40,000/- per month plus incentive and allowances as admissible.

6. The petitioner is claiming the regularization of her services on the premise that she was appointed on the basis of a Government contract and in terms of the Government notification dated 04.05.2017, a decision had been taken to regularize the services of those contractual appointees, who had completed three years continuous service as on 31.03.2017. It is the allegation of the petitioner that the similarly situated persons have been regularized in terms of the aforesaid notification and only the petitioner has been discriminated.

7. The petitioner is Bachelor in Dental Surgery. She also has Master’s degree in Public Health from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh.

8. Another allegation of the petitioner is that since she is the first Public Health Specialist to be appointed on Go