Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Apr 3: The High Court today directed the Public Works Department (PWD) to take a decision about the absorption of casual labourers working in Jammu and Kashmir Project Construction Corporation (JKPCC).
The Division Bench of Chief Justice N Kotiswar Singh and Justice Sanjay Dhar directed Corporation and its Administrative Department to take a decision regarding absorption of casual labours engaged by the Corporation including the case of the writ petitioner as well.
The direction has been passed in an appeal filed by the Corporation questioning the judgment and order dated 20.12.2019, passed by Writ Court filed by one Rabia Kousar seeking regularization of her services with the Corporation.
The Writ Court has allowed the writ petition and quashed order of rejection of regularization of Rabia Kousar and at the same time directed the appellant-Corporation to regularize her services on the same parameters as have been laid down in the cases of other similarly situated casual labours/Trainee Engineers/ Architects whose services stand regularized in the Corporation.
She was engaged as Planning Assistant on a casual basis by the Chairman of the appellant Corporation in 2002 and since then she has been discharging her functions in the Corporation. According to her, she is a Diploma Holder in Architectural Engineering and that she has worked on various projects of the appellant Corporation during her tenure with the said Corporation.
It was pleaded by her that in 2011, 58 Trainee Engineers were absorbed by the appellant Corporation in terms of order bearing No.Estt/117 of 2011 dated 12.02.2011 but similar treatment was denied to her. While considering the case of the petitioner the appellant shall also keep in mind the fact that the writ petitioner has been continuously working with it for the last about 20 years.
“While considering the case of the petitioner, the appellant shall also keep in mind the fact that the writ petitioner has been continuously working with it for the last about 20 years”, the DB directed.
“It is clear that the observation of the Writ Court that the order of rejection is cryptic or bereft of any reasons is not factually correct. The basis of holding the aforesaid rejection order as illegal is, therefore, knocked down which makes the impugned judgment passed by the Writ Court unsustainable in law. Apart from this, it was not open to the Writ Court to direct regularization of the petitioner without specifying against which post she is to be regularized”, the DB said.
The Corporation has challenged the judgment and order of the Writ Court on the grounds that the writ petitioner-Kousar was engaged as a casual labour on need basis and not as a Trainee Engineer, as such, her case is entirely different from the case of other Trainee Engineers who have been absorbed by the appellant Corporation.
It has been further contended that the name of the writ petitioner figures at serial No.776 of the list of casual labours and, as such, her services could not have been regularized by ignoring the claim of other casual labours who figure senior to her in the list of casual labours.
The DB, however, to these arguments reiterated that it is not clear from the record as to whether Trainee Engineers who were absorbed were engaged on the basis of any selection process and as to whether they were initially engaged as casual labourers who have found their way into the absorption order, as has been claimed by the writ petitioner.
All these questions, the DB added, need to be gone into by the appellant Corporation and its Administrative Department who are, admittedly, seized of the matter relating to absorption of casual labours engaged in the appellant Corporation as per their seniority.
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