SRINAGAR, June 13: The High Court has dismissed a petition filed by a former Jammu and Kashmir Cement Limited employee seeking regularisation of his services, deployment in another government department and service benefits on par with regular employees of the defunct corporation, while directing authorities to clear his outstanding wages within three months.
Justice Sanjay Dhar passed the order in a petition filed by Shahid Mehraj, who had sought regular service benefits and redeployment after the winding up of JKCL.
The petitioner submitted that his father had worked as a Machinery Attendant with JKCL’s Khrew factory for about 26 years and retired on March 31, 2014. Soon after retirement, he was diagnosed with Stage-IV lung cancer and died on May 10, 2014.
Following his father’s death, Shahid Mehraj was engaged by JKCL in July 2014 on a consolidated remuneration of Rs 4,500 per month for an initial period of 89 days. His engagement was subsequently extended from time to time with statutory breaks, and his remuneration was eventually enhanced to Rs 12,000 per month in May 2020.
The petitioner argued that JKCL later became a sick industrial unit and was eventually wound up by the government. He contended that while 303 out of 333 employees were deployed to various government departments and organisations under Government Order No. 48-IND of 2021 dated March 9, 2021, he and 29 other similarly placed workers were left out.
He further claimed that despite repeated representations, neither his services were regularised nor was he redeployed to another government department. He also alleged that his wages had remained unpaid since May 1, 2019.
The government, in its response, maintained that the petitioner had not been appointed under the compassionate appointment scheme because his father had died after retirement and not while in service.
It further submitted that only regular employees working in substantive pay scales were considered for deployment to other departments when JKCL was wound up.
The respondents also informed the court that the government had decided to shut down JKCL and auction its assets, and that the petitioner belonged to a category of workers engaged on consolidated remuneration who were not covered by the redeployment scheme.
After hearing both sides, the court noted that the petitioner’s services had never been regularised and that he continued to work only on a consolidated basis. Justice Dhar held that compassionate appointment can be granted only when an employee dies while in service.
It is a settled legal position that it is only if an employee dies while in service that his legal heirs are eligible to be considered for compassionate appointment,” the court observed.
The judge noted that although the petitioner’s father died shortly after retirement and JKCL may have shown compassion by engaging him on a consolidated basis, such engagement did not create a legal right to seek regular appointment or claim benefits available under compassionate appointment rules.
The court also rejected the petitioner’s claim for deployment to another government department after JKCL’s closure. Referring to Government Order No. 48-IND of 2021, the court observed that the redeployment scheme applied only to employees appointed on substantive posts and drawing regular pay scales, and not to daily-rated or consolidated workers.
Justice Dhar relied on a Division Bench judgment in Ghulam Nabi Bhat and Others versus State of JK and Others decided on March 25, 2026, which held that daily-rated workers could not claim parity with regular employees for purposes of redeployment.
The court further observed that workers engaged on a consolidated or casual basis do not acquire any legal right to continue in service, seek regularisation or demand continuity of employment after closure of the organisation.
Once the respondent JKCL has been wound up, its daily rated workers and workers engaged on consolidated basis have no right to seek a mandamus against the respondent JKCL or against the government to continue their services,” the court ordered.
However, on the issue of unpaid wages, the court noted that the respondents had acknowledged their obligation to release pending remuneration for the period during which eligible employees had actually worked.
Accordingly, while declining the petitioner’s prayers for regularisation, grant of regular pay scale and redeployment, the High Court directed the authorities to clear all outstanding wages due to him up to the date he actually performed duties with JKCL.
The court ordered that the dues be released within three months, failing which the amount would carry interest at the rate of six per cent per annum from the date of filing of the petition until its realization.
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