The court affirmed that a contractual appointment does not guarantee renewal, especially when prior conduct is deemed unsatisfactory, and procedural compliance is sufficient.

JUDGMENT :

Saurabh Shyam Shamshery, J.

1. This is third round of litigation.

2. The petitioner was appointed on a contractual post of ‘Warden’ on contract basis under Serva Shiksha Abhiyan, and joined her duties on 23.02.2011 at Kasturba Gandhi Awasiya Balika Vidyalaya, Chraigon, Varanasi.

3. The petitioner's yearly contract was renewed up to 2014-2015 and she was paid regular honorarium also. It is further case of petitioner that her contact was not renewed for year 2015-2016 and in this regard an order dated 15.07.2015 was passed, by the District Level Committee with approval of its Chairman i.e. District Magistrate and the said order is reproduced hereinafter:

4. The petitioner challenged the aforesaid order by way of filing Writ-A No. 43482 of 2015 whereby the said order was set aside and the writ was disposed of by an order dated 14.08.2015 with a direction to pass a fresh order.

5. In above order this Court has taken note of Clause 8 (Sub-clause 4) of a Government Order dated 29.07.2013 Clause 8 thereof is mentioned hereinafter:

6. In the aforesaid circumstances, petitioner submitted a representation which was considered and rejected by an order dated 14.09.2015 passed by District Basic Shiksha Adhikari, Varanasi, and relevant part thereof is reproduced hereinafter:

7. At this stage it would be appropriate to mention that from perusal of above referred order dated 14.09.2016 it would be clearly evident that a notice dated 18.12.2014 was issued to petitioner whereby an explanation was sought on nine issues. The petitioner has replied to the said notice vide an explanation dated 20.12.2014 and it appears that it was not brought into the notice of this Court during the hearing, when the first writ petition was disposed of. The factum of notice and a reply to it is sufficient to observe that requirement of Clause 8(4), of Government Order dated 29.07.2013 was substantially complied with.

8. In second round of litigation the petitioner has challenged order dated 14.09.2015 by way of filing a Writ-A No. 61117 of 2015. This time the court has taken note that petitioner was granted an opportunity of hearing i.e. a notice was issued and a reply thereof was submitted, still the court found that the reply so submitted by the petitioner was not considered. Therefore the order dated 14.09.2015 was set aside by a co-ordinate bench of this Court by an order dated 17.12.2015 and the matter was again remitted to the concerned respondent and relevant part thereof is mentioned hereinafter:

“From a perusal of the impugned order it is manifestly clear that the detailed representation of the petitioner (annexure-8 to the writ petition) has not been considered in the impugned order. Learned counsel for the respondents has failed to point out from the impugned order that the issue raised by the petitioner in her objection/representation has been adverted to by the authority concerned, the fifth respondent i.e. District Basic Education Officer.

In view of the above, the impugned order dated 14th September, 2015 passed by the District Basic Education Officer is not sustainable and it is set aside. The matter is remitted to the District Basic Education Officer, Varanasi, the fifth respondent, to pass a fresh order after considering the grievance of the petitioner which she has raised in her representation dated 20th December, 2014, expeditiously, preferably within a period of two months from the date of communication of this order.

The writ petition, is accordingly, allowed. No order as to costs.”

(Emphasis supplied)

9. In the aforesaid circumstances, matter was again considered by District Basic Shiksha Adhikari, Varanasi, and this time each and every point raised in reply submitted by the petitioner dated 20.12.2014 was considered and it was held that prior conduct of petitioner was not fit for renewal of contract and accordingly representation was rejected and earlier order whereby contract was not renewed was restored and relevant part thereof is mentioned