JUDGMENT

Dr. B.R. SARANGI, J. - The above mentioned 25 writ petitions have been filed by the candidates in Civil Engineering belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category, who have been engaged as Assistant Project Manager in the Orissa Police Housing & Welfare Corporation on contractual basis seeking to quash Annexure-1 whereby the petitioner has been intimated that no decision in the matter of regularization would be taken till restructuring of the Corporation is finalized and approved by the Government and further seeking for a direction to regularize their services pursuant to the Resolution dated 22.09.2008, Annexure-11 as has been done in case of other departments under Annexure-26 series with all consequential service and financial benefit with retrospective effect and other ancillary reliefs as mentioned in the prayer portion of the writ petitions.

2. The short fact of the case, in hand, is that Orissa State Police Housing and Welfare Corporation Limited, in short, ‘Corporation’, a public Sector Undertaking of the Government of Odisha is committed to build Police Buildings innovatively to enhance police efficiency and thereby improve Police-Community relations. The main objectives of the Corporation include to undertake construction of buildings for housing of the employees of the Government of Odisha in the Police, Prisons, Home Guards, Fire Force Department and Judicial Department as well as other similarly situated institutions. Initially the Corporation was started by bringing the persons on deputation from the Government and other Corporations and thereafter certain posts were created for the Corporation by the Board of Directors, which were later on approved by the Government in Home Department. One of those posts was Assistant Project Manager, which is equivalent to the post of Junior Engineer under the Government. On completion of the deputation period, the persons, who were borrowed, were sent back and consequently, the post of Junior Engineer fell vacant. In order to maintain the works already undertaken by the Corporation, the Corporation was required to recruit persons to fill up those posts.

3.Initially the Government of Odisha in P & S Department vide its Resolution dated 06.08.1979 constituted a committee for recruitment of Diploma Holders in Civil Engineering and other heads of the Departments concerned in which the Establishment Officer attached to the National Highway Organization would work as Secretary of the Committee. The Committee would allocate the Diploma Holders in Civil Engineering according to their requirements from the list of candidates available with the Technical Manpower Employment Exchange. All appointments were to be made from the list of candidates sponsored by the said Exchange and incase it failed to furnish candidates within a specified period of three weeks recruitment may be made from the open market. The Government in G.A. Department issued another Resolution on 03.04.1991 constituting a committee consisting of Officers mentioned therein as Chairman and Members of the said Committee to maintain a panel of candidates having Diploma Engineering qualification for employment of those unemployed Diploma Engineers of different disciplines under the Government Departments/Undertakings/ Corporations. On 08.02.1995, the Government of Odisha, G.A. Department brought some modifications in the Resolution dated 03.04.1991 stating that the Chief Engineer, National Highway shall act as the Chairman of the Committee. Again on 02.02.2000 the Resolution dated 03.04.1991 and 08.02.1995 issued by the G.A. Department were modified by reconstituting the committee to empanel Diploma Holders of all Engineering disciplines for appointment in Govt. Departments/Undertakings with Engineer-in-Chief (‘EIC’, in short) as the Chairman and all other officers as the members of the said committee. The Chairman-cum-Managing Director of opposite party no. 4 Corporation having found that there is dear