Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Nov 20: High Court today said that the breaks of one or two days in the service of daily wagers can’t disrupt their continuance in service and dismissed the Government appeal challenging their regularization.
The erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir through the Transport Commissioner and the Regional Transport Officer, Kathua together preferred appeal against the judgment of the writ court whereby the daily wagers in the department were held entitled to regularization of services in terms of Jammu & Kashmir Civil Services (Special Provisions) Act, 2010.
“We find no illegality in the judgment and order passed by the writ court. The appeal as such is bereft of merits and is dismissed with no order as to costs”, Division Bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Mohan Lal concluded.
The DB on one or two days break for daily wagers in any department said, the facts remains that the services continued from day one till the appointed day resulting in completion of seven years of service. Referring the Special Provision Act of 2010 the bench said it contemplates seven years of completed service rather than continuous service and in such a situation intermittent breaks of a day or two or such artificial breaks are meaningless and would not be sufficient to hold that the petitioner-Daily Wagers do not have seven years of service to their credit.
The petitioners were appointed on temporary basis as orderlies in the Transport Department in the year 1999, some in 2002 and 2003 for a period of 89 days but were allowed to continue even thereafter with intermittent break of a day or so. After the enforcement of the Act, as the petitioners/ respondents have completed more than seven years of continuous service and have otherwise fulfilled the essential conditions laid down for regularization therein, they claimed regularization but their claim was rejected on the ground that they were drawing salary from the contingent fund which compelled them to approach the writ court.
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