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2004 Supreme(J&K) 117

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR AT JAMMU
Permod Kohli, J.
Satish Kumar Raina (Dr.) - Appellant
Versus
State Of J&K Through Commissioner-cum-Secretary To Government, Health And Medical Education Deptt. & Ors. - Respondent
SWP No. 2347/2003
Decided On : 23 April, 2004

Advocates Appeared:
Advocate For Appellant: Sunil Hali
Advocate For Respondent: A.H. Naik

The State Government does not have the power to relax the rules of recruitment and regularize adhoc appointees against migrant vacancies.

Headnote:

Regularization - Migrant Employees - J&K High Court Rules, 1999 - Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India - J&K Public Service Commission v. Dr. Narinder Mohan & Ors., AIR 1994 SC 1808 - Suraj Parkash Gupta v. State of J&K & Ors., AIR 2000 SC 2386

Fact of the Case:

The petitioner, a migrant from Kashmir Valley, seeks regularization of his service as a Medical Officer. The main issue relates to the power of the State Government to regularize adhoc services of doctors. The State Government made temporary arrangements for manning migrant posts through adhoc appointments due to vacancies caused by the migration of government employees from the Valley.

Finding of the Court:

The court found that the State Government does not have the power to relax the rules of recruitment and regularize adhoc appointees against migrant vacancies. It referred the matter to a Larger Bench to consider important questions of law and public importance.

Issues: The issues include whether the order passed by the Full Bench on consent of the parties has binding nature on all other benches, whether the State has power to relax the rules of recruitment, and whether migrant vacancies can be filled up by regularization of adhoc appointees.

Ratio Decidendi: The court relied on the J&K High Court Rules, 1999, and the judgments in J&K Public Service Commission v. Dr. Narinder Mohan & Ors., AIR 1994 SC 1808 and Suraj Parkash Gupta v. State of J&K & Ors., AIR 2000 SC 2386 to establish that the State Government does not have the power to relax the rules of recruitment and regularize adhoc appointees against migrant vacancies.

Final Decision: The matter was referred to the Larger Bench to consider the important questions of law and public importance involved in the case.

An important and interesting question is involved in the present case. The petitioner is a migrant from Kashmir Valley and possesses degree of Bachelor of Unani Medicine (BUMS) from University of Rajasthan, Jaipur and post graduation degree from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was engaged as a Medical Officer for a period of 89 days vide Govt. Order No.285-H&ME of 1998 dated 02.04.1998 and continued to function as such even after the expiry of 89 days for which he was initially engaged. Though the petitioner is seeking his own regularization in the service. However, the main issue in the petition relates to the power of the State Government to regularize the adhoc Services of doctors in exercise of its administrative function.

2. Briefly stated after the migration of the members of the minority community from Kashmir Valley, a large number of vacancies fell vacant temporarily, which were earlier manned/occupied by the migrant government employees. Some of such posts in the Medical Department also became available on account of some doctors leaving Valley as a result of eruption of militancy. The State Government appears to have made temporary arrangement for manning these migrants posts by resorting to adhoc/stop-gap appointments. The migrant employees who left the Valley and took shelter in Jammu, Delhi and other parts of the country were also paid leave salary by the Government and their lien was kept intact. Since due to situation in the Valley migrants did not joined back their respective posts, the adhoc arrangements continued for years.

3. A large number of writ petitions came to be filed before the High Court by these adhoc appointees claiming their regularization against the migrant posts held by them as a stop-gap arrangement. One of such writ petition was SWP No.503/2000. Keeping in view the nature of the relief and large number of such petitions pending in Srinagar Wing of this court, the matter came to be referred to the Full Bench. The then Advocate General of the State appeared before the Full Bench and made statements before the Court, which was taken on record. The relevant part of the order taking notice of the statement of the Advocate General is quoted as : --

" 2. The learned Advocate General informed the Court that the state Government has decided to allow all the petitioners appointed against migrant vacancies to continue till an appropriate scheme for their regularization is formulated or till the concerned migrant employees return to their duties in Kashmir Valley, whichever happens earlier. To allay the apprehension of the learned counsel for the petitioner, the learned Advocate General also made it clear that in the event of any of the migrant vacancy post becoming a clear vacancy post on any count, or any of such post having already become a clear vacancy post, those petitioners, who are already working on those migrant vacancy posts shall be considered for regularization on such posts.

4. This statement of the Advocate General was accepted by the counsel appearing for the writ petitioners and, accordingly, a consent order was passed by the Full Bench which reads as :

"5. In view of the above, by consent of the learned counsel for the petitioners, all the writ petitions including those listed in the supplementary cause list for the days alongwith the contempt petitions and interim applications accompanying all these writ petitions, are disposed of in terms of the following consent order :

(i) The State Government shall allow all the petitioners appointed against migrant vacancies to continue till an appropriate scheme for their regularization is formulated, or till the concerned migrant employees return to their duties in Kashmir Valley whichever happens earlier.

(ii) In the event of any of the migrant vacancy post becoming a clear vacancy post on any count, or any of such post having already become a clear vacancy post, those petitioners, who are already working on those migrant vacancy posts, sh













































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