JAMMU, Nov 3: The High Court has ruled that daily wagers engaged in violation of the 2015 Government ban on new appointments cannot claim regularization under SRO 520 of 2017 & dismissed two connected writ petitions filed by Nazir Ahmad Bhat and others.
The court observed that the petitioners were not on the official muster rolls and that their engagement records had been fabricated after the ban.
Justice Javed Iqbal Wani noted that the petitioners had failed to demonstrate any infringement of legal or fundamental rights that would justify invoking the court’s extraordinary writ jurisdiction.
The findings of the inquiry committee clearly establish that the petitioners do not exist on the regular wage lists, and their CVs were drawn after the imposition of the ban,” the Judge held.
Pertinent to mention here that committee constituted by the Managing Director of the Power Development Department in July 2022 had conducted a detailed verification of engagement records in the Sub-Transmission Division, Ganderbal.
The committee, headed by the Superintending Engineer (O&M Circle), found that 128 persons, including the petitioners, were not listed on the division’s muster rolls.
The inquiry, completed in April 2023 and accepted by the Administrative Department in May 2024, confirmed that 465 daily-rated, need-based, and PDL/TDL workers were physically working in the division and receiving wages excluding the petitioners.
The petitioners had argued that they were engaged between 2012 and 2015, before the Government imposed a ban on such appointments through Order No. 43-F of 2015 dated March 17, 2015.
They alleged that their names were arbitrarily dropped from a list of 472 workers forwarded in 2021 for regularisation under SRO 520, and that 37 ineligible candidates were included in their place through backdoor means.
Justice Wani observed that the petitioners had neither challenged the inquiry report nor provided evidence of continuous service & the respondents cannot be said to have acted illegally or arbitrarily when the inquiry report, duly verified and accepted by the competent authority, conclusively established that the petitioners were not on roll & dismissed both petitions and all connected applications,
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