High Court raps Punjab's 'culture of ad-hocism'

Coming down heavily on the “culture of ad-hocism” in government employment, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that the State as a constitutional employer cannot be permitted to exploit workers for years together on contractual basis while extracting services of a perennial nature. Declaring such practice violative of Articles 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution, the Court directed Punjab to regularise the services of firemen engaged more than a decade ago.

“This Court has been constrained to observe a trend where long-term employees are engaged on ad hoc basis, in spite of the perennial nature of the services rendered by them. The State, being a constitutional employer, cannot be allowed to exploit its temporary employees, when they have been consistently serving its instrumentality for a significant time period. Such an approach would be violative of fundamental rights of the temporary employees enshrined in Article 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India,” Justice Harpreet Singh Brar asserted.

The Bench asserted that the legal position stood “crystallised” by the Supreme Court and High Courts alike—that keeping employees perpetually contractual for work of regular and permanent nature amounted to an “unfair labour practice.”

Justice Brar added the principle that a person could not be kept on probation for an indefinite period was well-settled, while condemning the State’s repeated resort to temporary engagements. The censure came in a case where the petitioners – appointed firemen by Rajpura Municipal Council in September 2013 on contract basis – continued to discharge their duties as contractual employees for more than a decade without being regularised.

The matter was placed before the Bench after their plea for regularisation was rejected through an order dated April 26, 2022. Justice Brar’s Bench, during the course of hearing, was told that a resolution passed by Rajpura Municipal Council to regularise them was approved by Punjab Director, Local Government, Punjab. But the Municipal Council’s executive officer did not issue regularisation orders.

Admonishing the government, Justice Brar remarked: “The respondents’ action is a classic example of the very trend denounced by the Constitutional Courts. The State, as a model employer, cannot be permitted to exploit a workforce for a decade and then deny them the security of regularisation on flimsy grounds.”

Allowing the writ petition, the Court directed Punjab to regularise their services within six weeks. It further held that the firemen would be deemed regularised automatically on expiry of the stipulated period in the event of non-compliance. The Court also granted them the benefit of past service for seniority and other consequential entitlements.

Justice Brar has already made it clear that government jobs are both rare and highly coveted. Such positions carry “the assurance of stability and dignity,” and every opportunity assumed immense significance for aspirants.

“It is of the utmost importance to ensure that the recruitment process remains sacrosanct, free from evils of arbitrariness and laxity. The constitutional values of equality and justice must be clearly reflected in the approach adopted by the concerned State instrumentalities,” Justice Brar had earlier cautioned.