JUDGMENT

(Prayers: Writ Petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seeking for a Writ of Mandamus directing the respondents to regularise the services of the petitioners in the light of the proposals forwarded by the 2nd respondent in its letter No.08075/R2/2014 dated 20.05.2014 and letter R.No.37816/54/2017, dated 18/12/2017 with all attendant benefits.)

1. The case of the petitioners herein is that they joined as Programmers/System Analysts in various Regional Transport Offices (RTO) across the State. All the petitioners are either qualified with the B.E. Computer Science/ BCA (or) B.Sc Computer Science, as the case may be. These petitioners herein were engaged initially through one agency called M/s Maruti Computer Agency from the year 2005 - 2009 and their services were continued without any interruption.

2. The Transport Department, in consideration of the continuous work that is required to be carried out by these petitioners as Programmers/System Analysts, had submitted a detailed proposal on 20.05.2014 for sanctioning sufficient posts on a regular basis as in the case of other departments. A detailed statement was also submitted explaining the requirement of full time employees and the need for regular staff for maintenance, operations and support.

3. As there was no response for the earlier proposal, another detailed proposal was also forwarded on 18.12.2017 emphasizing the need for System Analysts, Programmers and Data Entry Operators. The 1st respondent in response to the proposal, raised certain queries as to the viability of sanctioning of posts vide their letter dated 12.01.2018. The 2nd respondent vide letter dated 01.12.2018 furnished answer to the queries that have been sought for sanctioning of regular posts in a time scale of pay.

4. In the meanwhile, the contractor Maruthi Computers was changed and another agency by name New Life Placement was chosen and all the petitioners were continued under the new agency. Even the new agency through which the petitioners were employed had been discontinued from 2019, however, the services of these petitioners have been continued with uncertain service conditions. According to the petitioners, the proposals which have been mooted and forwarded by the authorities concerned have not been acted upon for several years despite the fact that these petitioners were continuing their services for a long time without any interruption. The petitioners have also submitted periodical representations seeking to regularize their services, but no action was forthcoming from the respondents.

5. While matters stood thus, a similarly placed employees have approached this Court in W.P.Nos.14782 and 19961 of 2020 for regularising their services. This Court vide its order dated 03.02.2021 has allowed the Writ Petitions and a direction was issued to the 1st respondent/Government, to consider the case of the petitioners positively. The learned Judge has passed a detailed order by taking note of several facts which were in favour of the petitioners therein and finally directed the Government to consider the claim of those petitioners for regularising their services.

6. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioners, apart from reiterating the above facts, would submit that the issue in this writ petitioner, is squarely covered by the directions of learned Judge in the aforesaid Writ Petitions. These petitioners are identically placed as that of the petitioners therein and therefore, learned counsel would request this Court to follow the directions of learned Judge in the aforementioned writ petitions.

7. Mr.L.S.M.Hasan Fizal, learned Additional Government Pleader appeared on behalf of the respondents and a counter affidavit has also been filed resisting the claim of the petitioners herein.

8. According to the counter affidavit, these writ petitioners herein are not entitled to the relief of regularisation as their proposal sent by the Transport Commissioner in the year 2014 was