State employees cannot be retained in casual status indefinitely without regular appointments; entitlement exists for consistent compensation and engagement under established rules.

ORDER

Per:- Sanjeev Gupta, Judicial Member The present Original Application (in short O.A.) has been filed by the applicants seeking the following reliefs:-

“(a) Declaring, Rule 8 of Jammu and Kashmir Casual and Other Workers-Regular Engagement Rules 2017 as ultra vires to Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India;

(b) Mandamus, commanding and directing the respondents to regularize the services of the applicants as Govt. Service Assistant w.e.f. the date the applicants have completed ten years of continuous working as Casual/Seasonal worker;

(c) Mandamus, commanding and directing the respondents to pay the salary/wages as seasonal/casual workers equivalent to the minimum wages fixed by the Government under Minimum Wages Act or in the alternative to pay to the applicants minimum wages i.e. equivalent to the minimum of pay scale attached to the post of Electricians and Plumbers in the erstwhile Public Health Engineering Department, now named as Jal Shakti Department as per the pay revisions effected by the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir from time to time;

(d) Mandamus, commanding and directing the respondents to release the unpaid wages of the applicants withheld by the respondents w.e.f. December, 2017 onwards till date and in future as well.

(e) Any other writ, command, order or direction, which this Hon’ble Court may consider just and fair in the facts and circumstances of the case.”

2. Shorn of unnecessary details, the facts of the case as projected in the O.A. are that in pursuance of Government Order No. 239-F of 2005 dated 29.11.2005 and cabinet decision No. 116/4 dated 11.05.2006, the applicants who were trained in Plumbers/Electricians Trade from Industrial Training Institute (ITI), being fully eligible, were engaged in Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department in the year 2007, as Casual/Seasonal Labourers, @ Rs. 70/- per day in terms of their performance in the selection process by virtue of various order, as per two separate advertisement notices dated 08.09.2006 and 28.08.2006, issued by Respondent No. 3 & 4. The applicants after their engagement are performing their duties continuously till date and are getting wages at different rates, revised by the Government from time to time.

3. It is averred that in exercise of powers vested under Rule 5 of the Minimum Wages Act 1948, the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir (respondent No. 6 ) issued a notification dated 26.10.2017 through the medium of SRO 460 prescribing the following minimum rates of wages w.e.f. 01.11.2017:-

Unskilled – Rs. 225/-, Skilled – Rs. 350/-, Highly Skilled – Rs. 400/- and Administrative/Ministerial/Accounts Staff – Rs. 325/-

The definition of skilled worker, as per aforesaid SRO (Annexure B) includes Electricians and Plumbers at serial No. 20 & 34.

4. It is further averred that despite having fixed the minimum rate of wages for skilled workers, as per above mentioned SRO, the applicants are being paid wages at lower rates from 2007 onwards, which is against the mandate of Act of 1948.

5. That on the basis of Communication bearing No. DLC/J/2018/468-70/245 dated 20.06.2018, for the first time, respondent No. 2 paid to the applicants, the minimum wages under the Act of 1948, @ Rs. 350/- per day on the basis of SRO 460 i.e. an amount of Rs. 10,500/- for the month of November 2018 as is evident from the wage statement of one of the applicant Vivek Kapoor, S/o Hari Krishan Kapoor working as ITI Worker in PHE Mechanical North Division, Jammu.

6. It is the grievance of applicants that for reasons best known, the respondents reduced the wages of the applicants from December onwards @ 225/- per day as shown in the wage statement of one of the applican