Long-term contractual service against sanctioned regular posts via open selection, though irregular, warrants regularization on equity after 10+ years unblemished performance of perennial duties, pending Supreme Court clarification.

ORDER

Hon’ble Mr. Manish Garg, Member (J)

Since a common question of facts and law arises in the present O.A.s, they are being disposed of through this common order. However, for the sake of brevity, the facts are primarily being extracted from O.A. No. 1518/2018 with the consent of the learned counsel for the parties.

2. The reliefs prayed for in O.A. No. 1518/2018, reads as under:

“(a) Direct the respondents to absorb/regularise the applicants as Junior Engineers and, if need be, respondents be directed to make appropriate provisions in the Recruitment Rules for absorption/regularisation of the applicants to the post of Junior Engineers.

(b) Direct the respondents to accord pay parity for the past and future service of the applicants with the regular staff.

(c) Accord all consequential benefits including arrears.

(d) Direct the respondents to accord leave and medical benefits to the applicants as admissible to regular JEs.

(e) Award costs of the proceedings; and

(f) Pass any order/relief/direction(s) as this Hon'ble Tribunal may deem fit and proper in the interests of justice in favour of the applicants.”

3. Mr. Luthra, learned counsel for the applicants, submitted that the respondents have failed to regularize the services of the applicants and grant them pay parity and consequential service benefits at par with regular Junior Engineers, despite the applicants having been engaged through a due process of open advertisement and having rendered more than ten years of continuous, unblemished service. There has been no break in service except for artificial breaks, no complaint regarding their conduct, and their performance has consistently been rated “Good”, “Very Good” and “Excellent”.

3.1. Learned counsel further submitted that the applicants fulfilled the prescribed eligibility and age criteria at the time of initial engagement and are discharging identical duties and responsibilities under the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 as regular Junior Engineers. Despite this, they have been paid only the minimum of the pay scale without allowances, increments, leave, medical benefits or 7th CPC benefits, whereas similarly placed employees, including contractual doctors and Junior Engineers in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, have been granted such benefits.

3.2. Learned counsel contended that out of 857 sanctioned posts of Junior Engineers in the three Municipal Corporations, more than one-third posts are vacant, thus there is no administrative or financial impediment to absorption. Furthermore, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation had adopted a resolution dated 09.01.2014 for the regularization of daily wagers and contractual employees, including Junior Engineers, yet no effective steps have been taken.

3.3. Learned counsel for the applicants relied upon judicial precedents, including directions of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in CWP No. 5681/2014 (Kiran Sharma vs. GNCT of Delhi & Ors.), wherein Recruitment Rules were framed providing for regularization of existing contractual staff. It is further submitted that the judgment in Secretary, State of Karnataka & Ors. vs. Uma Devi & Ors., (2006) 4 SCC 1,cannot be pressed by the respondents to legitimize exploitative engagements continued for years together, particularly where the engagement is against sanctioned posts and perennial requirements.

3.4. Concluding the arguments, learned counsel for the applicant argued that denial of regularization and pay parity to the applicants, while extending such benefits to similarly placed employees, amounts to hostile discrimination and is violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. The applicants, having rendered the prime o