Promissory estoppel binds State to employment assurance after land donation for public use and long service.

ORDER

Per: - Rajinder Singh Dogra, Judicial Member

1. The SWP No.620/2019 was transferred from the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu & Kashmir at Jammu and was registered as T.A No.3755/2020 by the Registry of this Tribunal.

2. The present matter was filed before the Hon’ble High Court seeking following relief: -

a) to direct the respondents to regularize the services of the petitioners in the Irrigation and Flood Control Department.

b) Such other additional or alternative relief, which this Hon'ble Court may in the facts and circumstances of the case deem fit and proper, be also passed in favour of the petitioners and against the respondents.

3. The facts of the case as pleaded by the petitioners in their pleadings are as follows: -

a) The present Transfer Application arises out of SWP No. 620/2019 which stood transferred from the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu & Kashmir at Jammu to this Tribunal and was registered as TA No. 3755/2020. The applicants, who are residents of different villages falling in Tehsils Bishnah, Suchetgarh, Samba, Vijaypur, R.S. Pura and adjoining areas, approached the writ court seeking a direction to the respondents for regularization of their services in the Irrigation and Flood Control Department, primarily on the ground that they had donated their private agricultural land for installation of irrigation tube wells on the assurance of employment.

b) It is the specific case of the applicants that during the year 2014 the Irrigation and Flood Control Department was in urgent need of land for installation of tube wells to mitigate acute scarcity of irrigation water in several villages. According to the applicants, since no land owner was initially willing to part with land, assurances were extended by the then departmental officials that one member from each donor family would be provided permanent employment in lieu of donation of land. Acting upon such representations and keeping in view the larger public interest of ensuring irrigation facilities, the applicants donated approximately one kanal of land each to the department by executing gift deeds, handed over physical possession, and allowed the department to install tube wells over their respective lands. The lands so donated were subsequently mutated in favour of the department, and tube wells were installed and made operational for public use.

c) The applicants further plead that despite having acquired valuable private land free of cost, the department failed to honour its promise of providing permanent employment and instead directed the applicants to submit affidavits affirming that no member of their families was already in government service and that no compensation had been received by them. Upon submission of such affidavits, the applicants were engaged only as casual labourers under Circular No. 30/PW/HYD/2012 dated 03.04.2012 and Circular No. 17/PW(HYD) of 2013 dated 09.04.2013. The applicants assert that they joined such engagement under compelling circumstances, having already parted with their land, and on the specific assurance that their services would be regularized after completion of five years of continuous service.

d) It is further pleaded that even during the course of their engagement as casual labourers, the respondents withheld their wages on several occasions, forcing the applicants to approach the High Court in SWP No. 1669/2016, pursuant to which directions were issued for release of salary. The applicants claim that they have continued to render uninterr