1993 Casual Labourers Scheme not ongoing; temporary status requires employment on 01.09.1993 plus 240 days service. Later appointees ineligible for regularization despite long service; disengagement via outsourcing valid absent scheme rights.

ORDER

By Hon’ble Mr. Mohan Pyare, Member (Administrative)

Shri Jaswant Singh, learned counsel for the applicants and Shri Krishna Kumar Ojha, learned counsel for the respondents are present.

2. By means of this OA, the applicants have sought the following reliefs :

“(i) To pass an order directing the Respondent Authorities to forthwith reinstate/re-absorb the application on their previous posts as held by them Prior to 01.04.2018 in the museum of Archeological Survey of India, Sarnath, Varanasi.

(ii) To pass an order directing the respondent authorities to regularize the applicants in the Museum of Archeological Survey of India, Sarnath, Varanasi.

(iii) To pass an order directing the respondent authorities to forthwith allow the applicants to work in the Museum of Archeological Survey of India, Sarnath, Varanasi, as earlier.

(iv) To pass an order directing the respondent authorities to pay minimum wages to the applicants along with dearness allowance and grant them 1/30th status.

(v) To pass an order directing the respondent authorities to pay the arrears to the applicants as till date they were not paid the minimum wages or dearness allowance.

(vi) To issue any other suitable order or direction which this Hon'ble Tribunal deem fit and proper under the facts and circumstances of the case.

3. The brief facts of the case as narrated by the applicants is that the applicants were appointed as a daily wager in the year 2009 and since then have been diligently discharging the various duties assigned to them from time to time. In the year 1993, a scheme was circulated for grant of temporary status and regularization of the daily wagers or the casual labours namely Casual Labourer (Grant of Temporary Status and Regularization) Scheme 1993. On 25.06.2002 the Deputy Secretary, Govt. of India again issued a clarification letter with respect to the casual labour (Grant of temporary status and regularization) scheme of Govt. of India through which it was directed to continue the scheme of 1998 and provide benefit of 1/30th to those labours who are working for a period of at least 240 days.01.04.2018. The applicants, who should have been given temporary status and considered for regularization under the ASI’s 1998 policy, were instead orally and illegally removed from service on 01.04.2018, reportedly because the ASI had shifted to outsourcing casual labour. Earlier, when the Central Office, New Delhi came to know that offices were not granted the required 1/30th status to the labours, they issued another letter and directed them to grant the benefit s as per the policy of 1998. Another office memorandum dated 16.10.2015 was issued for providing the benefits for 2014-15. Against the illegal removal of the applicants, they preferred a representation before the respondents requesting them not to remove the applicants as daily wagers but till date no reply has been given by the respondents. Hence, this OA.

4. Learned counsel for the applicant submitted that the applicants have worked for more than ten years on duly sanctioned posts, continuously performing duties identical to those of regular employees, and they possess the required qualifications. Although temporary or daily-wage appointments may be made in limited circumstances, the applicants’ long, uninterrupted service gives rise to legitimate expectations of regularization, especially since the authorities voluntarily retained them without any court orders. The respondents’ decision to replace them through outsourcing is arbitrary, violates Articles 1