Delay and laches in filing a writ petition, legal basis for claiming absorption as a government employee.

JUDGMENT :

Vipin Sanghi, J.

The present special appeal is directed against the order dated 14.12.2022, passed by the learned Single Judge, in Writ Petition (S/S) No. 2351 of 2022. The said writ petition preferred by the appellant has been dismissed by the learned Single Judge on merits, as well as on account of delay and laches in preferring the said writ petition.

2. The facts, in brief, are that the appellant claimed that he was serving as a Class-IV employee in a Government Aided Institution since 1997. Admittedly, the said school was provincialized in the year 2012. Subsequently, vide order dated 19.12.2013, the Chief Education Officer, Almora absorbed the appellant in Government service w.e.f. 01.09.2012. After over ten years of his being absorbed in government service, w.e.f. 01.09.2012, the appellant preferred the aforesaid writ petition challenging the order dated 19.12.2013, issued by respondent No.3, which stated that he was being appointed as a temporary government employee in the Institution after provincialization of the same. The appellant also sought a direction to the respondents to treat his initial date of appointment in the year 1997 in the erstwhile Government Aided Management School, as the date of his substantive appointment for the purposes of computing his benefits under the ACP Scheme/pay fixation and promotion.

3. The learned Single Judge has not found merit in this claim of the appellant-writ petitioner, while observing that since the Institution was provincialized w.e.f. 01.09.2012, therefore, the appellant’s prayer for his absorption as a Government employee anterior to the date when the Institution was provincialized, is without any legal basis. The learned Single Judge has also observed that the writ petition was preferred highly belatedly.

4. So far as the merits are concerned, learned counsel for the appellant seeks to rely upon a judgment of this Court in Beer Singh Bhandari vs. State of Uttarakhand & others, Writ Petition No.270 of 2009 (S/S), decided on 23.12.2009.

5. We have perused the said judgment which is placed on record along with the writ record. The said judgment has absolutely no application to the facts of the present case. In that case, the writ petitioner was already serving as a government employee since 21.10.1971. The position in the present case is entirely different. The appellant was not in government service from 1997 when he claimed to have joined the said Institution, which was a Government Aided Management School.

6. In our view, it would be absurd for anyone to claim that his absorption as a government employee should relate back to the date of his initial appointment in the Government Aided Management School, even though, the takeover/ provincialization of the Management School has taken place decades later. We also find that the writ petition itself was highly belated inasmuch, as, the order dated 19.12.2013, which, in turn, stated that the appointment as a government servant would be on a temporary basis, was not put to challenge by the appellant for over nine years after its issuance, and there is no explanation therefor.

7. For the aforesaid reasons, we do not find any merit in the present special appeal, and the same is accordingly dismissed.

8. Pending application, if any, also stands disposed of.