Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Dec 6: The High Court today said an adhoc employee cannot be replaced by another one and quashed the advertisement notice issued by the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Soura (SKIMS) for temporary engagement of Staff Nurses and observed that the institute is free to fill these posts on regular appointment basis.
The petitioners who are presently working on posts in question on contractual basis, have challenged the notification issued by the institute last month on 17.11.2022, whereby, Director SKIMS has invited applications for temporary engagement of Staff Nurses on academic arrangement basis initially for a period of six months.
Justice Sanjay Dhar has allowed the petition of contractual staff nurses and quashed the advertisement notice issued by the Director SKIMS with the direction that in case SKIMS authorities need the services of Staff Nurses on contractual basis, they shall engage the services of the petitioners who are already working on contractual basis with the respondents.
“For the foregoing reasons, the writ petition is allowed and the impugned Advertisement Notice No.3 of 2022 dated 17.11.2022 is quashed. The respondents are, however, at liberty to issue a fresh Advertisement Notice inviting applications for filling up of vacant posts of Staff Nurses on substantive basis by making regular appointment against these posts”, Court directed.
The petitioners have challenged the impugned Advertisement Notice primarily on the ground that it was impermissible in law for the respondent-SKIMS to replace the temporary arrangement of engagement of petitioners with a similar arrangement as even though their appointment is purely of temporary and contractual in nature, yet the respondents cannot replace them by a similar arrangement.
The respondent-SKIMS in rebuttal to the contentions of petitioners argued before the court that the posts held by the petitioners are purely on contract basis and once their contract came to an end, they have no legal right to continue.
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