The employment status of merged gram panchayat employees must be verified with new evidence, impacting their entitlement to benefits under municipal law.

1. Solapur Municipal Corporation, Solapur, preferred six appeals aggrieved by the judgment dated 31.07.2013 passed by a Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, in effect, allowing Writ Petition Nos. 197 of 2012, 2011 of 2003 and 2432 of 2003, and also the later order dated 08.08.2014 passed by the Division Bench, dismissing its review petitions filed in the aforestated three writ petitions. Thereafter, Digitally signed by Nisha Khulbey Date: 2024.05.15 18:15:24 IST Reason:

Signature Not Verified another Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay followed the judgment dated 31.07.2013 and allowed W.P. No. 2463 of 2010 filed by another employee similarly situated to the petitioners in the other three writ petitions on 09.03.2017. Assailing this order, Solapur Municipal Corporation filed Civil Appeal No. 9133 of 2018.

2. By order dated 24.04.2015, this Court stayed the operation of the impugned judgment dated 31.07.2013 till the next date of hearing. Thereafter, while granting leave on 24.08.2018, the interim order was made absolute.

3. The issue for consideration in these appeals is as to the status of the respondents herein, viz., the petitioners in the four writ petitions before the High Court, who were engaged in the service of Majarewadi Gram Panchayat, which was merged with Solapur Municipal Corporation (hereinafter, ‘the Corporation’) along with ten other gram panchayats with effect from 05.05.1992. On 25.03.2003, the respondents herein, along with others, were regularized in the service of the Corporation with effect from 01.02.2003. Their claim before the High Court, however, was that they should be treated as having been absorbed in the service of the Corporation from 05.05.1992 itself, in view of the provisions of Section 493 (5)(c) of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations Act,

1949. On the other hand, the Corporation contended that they were continued on daily wage basis till 01.02.2003 and, therefore, their employment from 05.05.1992 could not be treated as regular service.

4. The Division Bench placed reliance on the affidavit filed by a Section Officer of the Urban Development Department, Government of Maharashtra, confirming that 300 posts had been sanctioned in the Corporation to accommodate the employees of the erstwhile gram panchayats which had merged with it from 05.05.1992, and held that it followed therefrom that the employment of such persons by the Corporation stood regularized with effect from 05.05.1992. The Division Bench, accordingly, disposed of the three writ petitions directing that the services rendered by the writ petitioners before 05.05.1992 with the gram panchayat till 05.05.1992 shall be treated as regular service rendered to the Corporation; that the services rendered by them from 05.05.1992 till 01.02.2003 shall also be deemed to be regular service rendered to the Corporation; and that, in view of the above, all service benefits as well as retirement benefits should be extended to them, on the footing that the services rendered by them from their respective dates of appointment by the gram panchayat till 01.02.2003 shall be deemed to be services rendered to the Corporation. The Corporation, thereupon, preferred review petitions but the same were dismissed by the Division Bench on 08.08.2014. The said order reflects that the Bench found no error apparent on the face of the record, warranting review of its judgment, and dismissed the review petitions. The order passed in the fourth writ petition thereafter was on the same lines as the earlier judgment.

5. The main issue for consideration before us is as to the employment status of the respondents herein in the service of Majarewadi Gram Panchayat. Pertinent to note, the respondents claim to be the regular employees of the said gram panchayat as on the appointed date, i.e., 05.05.1992. If so, they would be entitled to claim the benefit of Section 493 of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act, 19