Uttarakhand High Court
Unknown vs State Of Uttarakhand And Others on 11 June, 2025
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL
THE HON'BLE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. G. NARENDAR
AND
THE HON'BLE JUSTICE MR. ALOK MAHRA
SPECIAL APPEAL No.24 of 2025
11th June, 2025
Ajay Panwar and others -- Appellants
Versus
State of Uttarakhand and Others --Respondents
With
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1373/2023
Writ Petition (SS) No. 670/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 768/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1047/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1121/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1294/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1473/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1475/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1552/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1581/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1583/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1586/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1598/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1638/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1644/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1690/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1700/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1873/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1885/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1897/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1954/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1955/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1967/2024
Writ Petition (SS) No. 1968/2024
1
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Writ Petition (SS) No. 1969/2024
&
Special Appeal No. 22/ 2025
Special Appeal No. 40/2025
Special Appeal No. 41/2025
Special Appeal No. 42/2025
Special Appeal No. 43/2025
Special Appeal No. 44/2025
Special Appeal No. 45/2025
Special Appeal No. 46/2025
Special Appeal No. 47/2025
Special Appeal No. 48/2025
Special Appeal No. 49/2025
Special Appeal No. 53/2025
Special Appeal No. 57/2025
Special Appeal No. 58/2025
Special Appeal No. 59/2025
&
Special Appeal No. 62/2025
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Presence:-
Mr. K. P. Uppadhya, Mr. D. S. Patni, learned Senior Counsels along with Mr. M. C.
Pant, Mr. Aditya Singh, Mr. A. M. Saklani, Mr. P. S. Uniyal, Mr. A.K. Bisht, Mr.
Sandeep Tiwari, Mr. Bhupesh Kandpal and Mr. Himanshu Yadav, learned counsels
for the petitioners/appellants.
Mr. J.P. Joshi, learned Additional Advocate General alongwith Mr. P. C. Bisht,
learned Addl. C.S.C. for the State.
Mr. Ashish Joshi and Mr. Pankaj Miglani, learned counsel for the Uttarakhand
Public Service Commission.
Mr. Shubhang Dobhal, learned counsel for the applicants in Impleadment
Application No. 3 of 2025.
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JUDGMENT :
(per Mr. G. Narendar, C. J.)
Heard learned Senior Counsel for the
appellants/petitioners, learned Addl. Advocate General for
the State and learned counsel for the Commission.
2. The appeals came to be preferred being
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aggrieved by the modification of the interim order by
learned Single Judge by order dated 04.03.2025,
whereby the learned Single Judge is pleased to modify
the interim order and as a consequence of the
modification, it resulted in the official respondents taking
action to drop the appellants from the service and replace
them with another set of contractual employees.
Aggrieved by this action of the official respondents, the
appellants are before this Court.
3. It was also mentioned before this Court that
there are several writ petitions, wherein the parties have
been praying for regularization and in many of the writ
petitions, interim relief from removal from service had
also been granted. In that view, the writ petitions were
directed to be listed before this Bench along with appeals.
4. Having heard the learned counsels, it is
apparent that the petitioners were appointed as Junior
Engineers on contractual basis, without following the
norms of selection. The fact also remains that the
selection is not subject to any process conducted by the
Public Service Commission or by any other competent
authority. There is no dispute with regard to the fact that
many of them have rendered service for more than a
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decade and a half and some for few years, but all have
been rendering service even through Covid-19 period in
various capacities and in various posts to which they
were deputed by the official respondents. The fact
remains that post the pronouncement of the judgment in
Secretary, State of Karnataka and Others Vs. Uma Devi
and others, reported in (2006) 4 SCC 1, rendered by the
Constitutional Bench of the Hon'ble Apex Court, the State
has legislated and framed 2013 Rules, wherein the State
has laid down the criteria for regularization of services of
the employees, who have been employed on ad-hoc,
temporary or contractual basis or even daily wagers.
Despite the law governing the subject having been
legislated, we find that issue of regularizations of Junior
Engineers, who have been appointed over different
periods, has been hanging fire and pending without any
light at the end of the tunnel.
5. Having heard the learned counsels and having
realized that determination of the individual petitions on
merits would result in a humongous task and would
stretch the Court's resources thin in order to arrive at a
decision, and further the Court would be mandated to
render finding of facts in a proceeding under Article 226
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of the constitution, regarding the eligibility of the
petitioners to be considered for regularization, this Court
has suggested to the counsels as to whether the process
of consideration of each of the candidate's case on merits
be left to the official respondents, as the official
respondents are better suited and have the wherewithal
and the machinery to address the request of each and
every candidates and verify the claims and cross check
their antecedents before considering their case on merits
and pass orders either way?
6. Learned counsels have unanimously given their
consent to the suggestion of the Court. The learned Addl.
A.G. has also consented to this suggestion.
7. In that view, we are of the view that it would be
appropriate to direct the Secretary, PWD to separately
consider the individual claims of all the petitioners for
regularization on the post to which they have been
engaged and continued to be engaged on contractual
terms. In that view, the special appeals and the writ
petitions are hereby disposed of with the following
directions:-
(i). Every petitioner shall submit an individual
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representation setting out, in detail, the merits of
his claim and shall also enclose necessary
certificates in support of his eligibility to be
considered for the post.
(ii). The claim petition shall include the details
such as; (a) regarding the date of appointment, (b)
in the event, any selection process was undertaken
by the authorities (in the course of engaging the
services on contractual basis) the details of such
process/procedure, (c) the details of the breaks
(the detail of the break shall detail the number of
days, months or years, the petitioner was out of
service), (d) the date of discontinuance and the
date of reappointment shall be stated.
(iii). The petitioners shall submit their respective
representation within 15 days from the date to be
calculated from the date of receipt of copy of this
order. At the latest, the representation shall be
submitted to the first respondent on or before
30.06.2025 by 5:30 p.m.
(iv). Thereafter, the first respondent shall examine
the representations individually and, thereafter,
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draw up a list assigning seniority to the petitioners
and some of the criteria for assessing and drawing
up the seniority list are as follows:-
(a) The date of entry in the service.
(b) The total length of service, excluding the
number of days/weeks/months that the
petitioners were actually out of service.
(v). Thereafter, the first respondent shall, on the
basis of the criteria stated (supra) and also
appreciate the 2013 Rules and, thereafter, pass
orders on each representation, holding them
eligible or not, for regularization. The first
respondent shall not take into consideration, the
removal from the post of certain of the petitioners
post the modification of the interim orders dated
10.01.2025 & 04.03.2025, for the purpose of
calculating the length of service. The service
rendered or failure to render service post
10.01.2025 shall not be factored in by the first
respondent while calculating the length of service.
The first respondent shall not be influenced by any
of observations made in any of the orders passed
by this Court, either sitting singly or in division and
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the case of each petitioner shall be considered on
the individual merits. It is further made clear that in
the event of any of the petitioners' services being
regularized and it is found that he has been
removed only due to the modified interim order,
then the period from 10.01.2025 shall be counted
as a period spent on duty.
(vi). The first respondent shall consider the
case of the petitioners not only in respect of the
existing vacancies, but also the vacancies that may
come up in the next six months. It is made clear
that all those who have been given charge of
promotional post or a post higher in rank of J.E. for
regularization, shall be eligible for regularization
only in the post of J.E. It is made clear that the
candidate applying for regularization, shall be from
amongst the list of names of 229 persons furnished
by learned Addl. A.G. i.e. the list compiled pursuant
to the order dated 01.04.2025 in SPA No.24 of
2025 in the matter of Ajay Panwar and others
Vs. State of Uttarakhand and others.
(vii). Prior to regularization, the first respondent
shall, in consultation with the Government, also
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formalize the service benefits that the State would
extend pursuant to the order of regularization.
8. We deem it appropriate to issue this direction,
in view of the fact that it would prevent unavoidable
litigation and future litigations. The consideration of the
cases of the petitioners shall be expedited by the first
respondent and, at any rate, the exercise shall be
completed within six months from the date of receipt of
copy of this order.
9. The Registry shall forthwith forward the
certified copy of this order to the first respondent.
10. All the appeals and the writ petitions listed
today stands disposed of in the above terms.
(G. NARENDAR, C. J.)
(ALOK MAHRA, J.)
Dated: 11.06.2025
BS
