High court quashes Haryana’s revival of Class-II regularisation policy
We find that once recruitment to Class-II posts fell within the purview of the Public Service Commission, it was not open for the state to come out with such policy, said the bench
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has set aside the Haryana Government’s 2014 decision reviving a shelved regularisation policy and granting retrospective regularisation to ad hoc appointees on Class-II posts.
Allowing a petition filed by regularly appointed employees in different government-run polytechnics in the state, the bench of Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor asserted the impugned action of reviving regularisation policy on Class-II posts upon completion of two years’ service and consequential grant of regularisation from retrospective date could not be sustained
“The impugned policy dated June 16, 2014, as well as consequential regularisation from retrospective date vide an annexure dated August 29, 2014, are set aside,” the bench ruled, while holding that the state could not resurrect the policy particularly in view of binding Supreme Court precedents.
Referring to the Supreme Court judgments in the cases of Umadevi and others, and Mandeep Singh and others, the bench asserted it had no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the state was not justified in coming out with the policy reviving the provision of regularisation on completion of two years of service on a Class-II post.
Tracing the legal background, the bench observed that Haryana originally framed the policy on March 7, 1996, permitting regularisation of ad hoc Class-II employees. But the policy was withdrawn following Supreme Court observations in a case.
The bench asserted appointments to Class-II posts ordinarily required consultation with the Public Service Commission and that such requirement flowed directly from Article 320 of the Constitution and the Haryana Public Service Commission (Limitation of Functions) Regulations, 1973.
“By virtue of clause 3(a) of Article 320, the State Public Service Commission is required to be consulted on all matters relating to methods of recruitment to civil services and for civil posts. By virtue of such provision, the Class-II posts in the State of Haryana would be required to be filled up on the basis of consultation made with the Public Service Commission.”
The bench added Class-III and IV posts had been kept out of the Commission’s purview, but no such exclusion existed for Class-II posts. “We find that once recruitment to Class-II posts fell within the purview of the Public Service Commission, it was not open for the state to come out with a policy which had the effect of regularising such appointments on completion of two years of service.” The court added that the state failed to place valid justification on record for reviving the 1996 policy discontinued in December 1997. The only defence put forth by the respondent-employees was that the policy had been implemented for others. Its revival removed arbitrariness arising from the non-regularisation of the respondent-employees on completion of two years.
Rejecting the contention, the bench asserted: “This justification offered by the respondents cannot find approval of the court in view of the fact that the recruitment on Class-II posts was required to be made through Public Service Commission, and no principle of law otherwise justifies regularisation on the strength of working for a period of two years”.
