Adhoc employees entitled to retrospective regularization after 7 years continuous service under SRO-64 of 1994, with old pension benefits despite employer delay.

ORDER

Per: - Rajinder Singh Dogra, Judicial Member

1. The applicant has filed the present Original Application under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 seeking the following reliefs: -

In view of the facts mentioned in para5 above the applicant prays for the following relief(s) :-

That the Hon'ble Tribunal may kindly be pleased to quash the order dated 25.04.2018 by virtue of which the applicant was put under NPS and have given regularization from February 2013 being illegal, arbitrary and discriminatory.

Further directing the respondents to give effect of regularization of service of the applicant since from the day he has completed 07 years in the department as adhoc employee w.e.f 1996 alongwith all consequential relief: Further directing the respondents to put the applicant under the old pension scheme and not under all NPS by granting the retrospective effect in view of the fact that many other similarly situated persons have given same effect and all the benefits be given to the applicant since 1996.

Further directing the respondents to award family pension and other pensionary benefits the applicant

Any other relief which this Hon'ble Tribunal deem just and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case be passed in favour of the applicant.

2. The facts of the case as averred by the applicant in his pleadings, are as follows: -

a) The applicant, Saidullah Ahangar, claims to have been engaged by the respondents as an adhoc/daily rated employee during the period 1988-89 and to have continued in such capacity for several years thereafter in different institutions under the Education Department, District Doda. According to the applicant, his engagement was extended from time to time through formal orders issued by the competent authority, and throughout his service career his conduct remained satisfactory and unblemished, as reflected from the service records and certificates issued by the department.

b) It is the specific case of the applicant that his initial engagement stood acknowledged by the departmental authorities themselves, particularly in an order dated 20.06.1992, wherein it was recorded that he had already put in more than five years of service as a daily wager. On the strength of such engagement, the applicant asserts that in terms of the applicable recruitment/service rules and government policies, his services were liable to be regularized on completion of seven years of continuous service, which according to him stood completed in the year 1996. However, despite such eligibility, no steps were taken by the respondents to regularize his services, and he continued to work as a daily rated/adhoc employee.

c) Aggrieved by non-regularization, the applicant approached the High Court by filing SWP No. 2648/1999, which came to be disposed of on 12.03.2001 with a direction to the respondents to consider his case. The applicant claims that despite service of the said order and repeated representations, the respondents failed to accord him the benefit of regularization

d) The applicant further states that in the year 2013, the Government issued Order No. 178-Edu of 2013 dated 22.02.2013 for regularization of certain adhoc/contractual employees, in which his name appeared at Serial No. 36, as he was then working as a Laboratory Assistant at Government Higher Secondary School, Doda. However, even after issuance of the said order, the applicant alleges that his services were not regularized in actual terms.

e) Once again, the applicant approached the High Court by filing SWP No. 3267/2014 seeking retrospective regularization from the date of completion of seven years of service along with conseque