HC clears decks for regularization of Court employees

Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Jan 31: Decks have been cleared for regularization of Daily Wagers and Casual Workers of High Court and subordinate courts as the Full Court approved the rules and regulations with regard to it by directing the Government to file response indicating as to what steps have been taken for finalizing the process on the issue.
The Division Bench of Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey and Justice D S Thakur after perusal of the response of Registrar General of High Court said it revealed the matter regarding framing of two sets of rules Viz ” J&K High Court Causal and Other Workers Regular Engagement Rules” and “J&K District Judiciary Casual and Other Workers Regular Engagement Rules” for enabling the regularization of Daily Wagers and Casual Workers working in the High Court and subordinate Judiciary are pending with Government since September last year.
In view of this stand by Registrar General, the Division Bench directed the General Administration Department and Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs to file the response within three weeks indicating the steps taken for finalizing the process of taking decision for enabling the Registrar General to ensure completion of process of regularization of these Daily Wagers.
It may be noted that the issue of regularization of these employees was taken by the erstwhile State Government before Supreme Court when the High Court for not implementing its directions had summoned both the Secretaries of Law and Finance. The Supreme Court while deciding the matter made some observations in its judgment on these daily wagers, which the High Court has taken into consideration and proceeded for implementation of these observations.
When the matter remained pending before the Government, the High Court constituted its own Empowered Committee for scrutinizing the cases of daily rated workers and a report upon being prepared necessary funds would be provided by the Government and accordingly the committee constituted by Chief Justice after threadbare discussion made certain recommendations and expressed that SRO 520 of 2017 (regular engagement of casual and seasonal and other workers in J&K) is not applicable for the daily wagers and casual workers of High Court and subordinate courts as the appointments of these employees and staff of courts is governed by Section 108 and the appointment of Ministerial staff of subordinate courts is governed by Section 30 of Civil Courts Act.
The stand of the Government for insisting application of SRO 520 to the these employees and akin to which a separate scheme was proposed to be framed by the High Court in a meeting which was convened by the Chief Justice with the Chief Secretary and Secretaries of Finance and Law department. “The condition of services of officers and other employees of the High Court are regulated by the Rules framed by the High Court with the approval of the Governor”, read the report of Registrar General.