The court ruled that the failure to properly consider the D.E.O.'s inquiry report regarding attendance invalidated the rejection of service regularisation, affirming rights based on continuity of service.

JUDGMENT :

A.K. Mohapatra, J.

1. The Petitioner No.1, who was working as a Junior Clerk on being appointed on 12.07.1991 and subsequently promoted to the post of Senior Clerk on 13.01.1992, the Petitioner No.2, who was working as a Junior Clerk on being appointed on 12.01.1992 and Petitioner No.3, who was working as a Peon, have approached this Court by filing a present writ application with a prayer for a issuance of writ of mandamus to the Opposite Parties directing them to regularise the service of the Petitioners reckoning their inter se seniority from the date of their regularisation of service vis-à-vis similarly situated employee w.e.f. 17.11.2017 and to allow them consequential service benefits as extended by virtue of order dated 12.09.2013 of the learned Odisha Administrative Tribunal. A further prayer has also been made for issuance of writ of certiorari for quashing order dated 25.04.2025 at Anenxure-8, whereby the Opposite Party No.1 has rejected their prayer for regularisation of their service.

2. The factual background of the Petitioners’ case in brief leading to filing of the present writ application is that the Govt. of Odisha took a policy decision which was intimated to the Director Secondary Education, Odisha vide letter dated 01.08.1990 to the effect that under the Centrally sponsored Scheme of vocationalisation of Secondary Education, the Government was pleased to introduce +2 vocational stream in 150 institutions of the State as per the list enclosed the said letter. Further, with regard to some of the institutions which are run by private management, it was decided to obtain their clear willingness and agreeability to be a part of the scheme and the terms and conditions as would be fixed by the Government. As such, it appears from the pleadings on the writ application that the aided educational institutions agreed to the terms and conditions of the Government. Accordingly, the Managing Committee of different private institutions started the recruitment procedure for appointment of non-teaching staff. Accordingly, the Managing Committee of U.N. High School, Aruhabad, in the district of Balasore, where the institutions was opened initially, appointed the Petitioners in their respective post as has been narrated hereinabove. Such appointment orders of the Petitioners were also forwarded to the Office of the Director Secondary Education, Odisha for information and taking necessary action.

3. While Petitioners were continuing in their respective posts the Government declared that the private institutions in which vocational education scheme was introduced to be treated as a government institutions for all purposes vide office order dated 21.01.1992. In view of the aforesaid office order dated 21.01.1992, the private institutions where the vocational education was being imparted was taken over by the Government. Accordingly, it has been asserted in the writ application that the Petitioners became Government employee w.e.f. 21.01.1992. In the meantime, the Government took a decision not to fill up the post of Senior Clerk even though by then Senior Clerks were appointed by such Private Education Institutions before they were taken over by the Government. Being aggrieved by such decision of the Government, the Petitioners approached the learned Odisha Administrative Tribunal by filing O.A. Nos.81, 82, 83 of 1994 with a prayer for regularisation of their service. By virtue of order dated 10.10.1996, the learned OAT dismissed the O.A applications filed by the Petitioners