Frame policy to regularise contingency paid employees in eight weeks: Court

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 30

Stating that contingency paid employees working in different government of the state constitute a single class, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has directed the government to frame a policy for regularisation of their services in the finance and other government departments within eight weeks.

These directions were passed on Wednesday by the High Court on a writ petition by a contingency paid employee working in the Finance Department, who has already completed 14 years of service but his regularisation was rejected by the authorities vide an order on January 8, 2014.

However, the employee challenged the order by filing a writ petition, which was allowed today.

“The contingency paid employees working in all departments in the state constitute one single class,” the High Court said.

Stating that the contingency paid employees working in all departments of the state have to be given ‘uniform treatment’, the court observed that the state government had subjected the petitioner as also the other contingency paid employees in other government departments to invidious discrimination.

“The state has to act as a model employer and has to uphold the constitutional values. The discrimination is writ large on the facts of this case. The state shall have to frame a policy in the Finance Department, where the petitioner is working as full-time contingency paid employee, and in the other departments,” it said, adding that the state government was ‘duty-bound’ to give same treatment to the petitioner and other contingency paid employees to avoid further litigation and to ensure that this class of people, who can hardly make both ends meet, are not pushed to expensive litigation.

While seeking quashing of the government order, the petitioner sought that the state government be directed to frame a policy as well as rules as it had framed in other departments for regularisation of contingency paid employees, including the petitioner. It was also prayed that the government be directed to enhance monthly wages of the petitioner.

While objecting to the petition, the state government had submitted that there was neither any policy nor rules framed for regularisation of the services of the contingency paid employees working in the Finance Department.

However, the authorities admitted that the government had framed a policy and notified it by SRO-380 in October 2008, under which 50 per cent of Class IV posts had been reserved for absorption/regularisation of the contingency paid employees in the state Education Department.