Lal Vengi Laguri vs State Of Tripura And Ors

[1] The petitioner has prayed for a direction to the respondents for giving her benefit of the Government circular dated 7th November, 2012 and consequently to give her the status of Daily Rated Worker(DRW) from the due date.

[2] Brief facts are as under :

The petitioner is working as a Part Time Worker in Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited. She claims that she is covered by a scheme for converting Part Time Workers into Daily Rated Workers subject to fulfilment of certain conditions as per the scheme framed by the Government under office memorandum dated 7th November, 2012. She contends that the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited has adopted this scheme and granted benefit to several part-time workers.

[3] On the other hand, the Electricity Corporation has opposed the petition contending that the petitioner does not fulfil the conditions contained in the said scheme. It is pointed out that as per the scheme, the benefit of converting a part-time engagement into DRW would be made available only if the person concerned had been engaged prior to 31st March, 2003 and who completes 10(ten) years of service and who is paid out of the State Government's fund. The respondents would point out that the petitioner was engaged for the first time on 1st January, 2004 and she, therefore, does not fulfil this essential condition of the scheme.

[4] Having heard learned counsel for the parties and having perused documents on record, I do not find that the petitioner has made out any case for issuance of the directions. The scheme framed by the Government under the said office memorandum dated 7th December, 2012 provides that the part-time workers who were engaged prior to 31st March, 2003 and who have completed 10(ten) years of service would be engaged as DRW w.e.f 1st December, 2012 subject to certain conditions, one of them being that the remuneration for such engagement of 10(ten) years or more is paid out of Government funds.

[5] The petitioner claims that she was engaged for the first time on 1st February, 2003. However, the petitioner herself has produced a copy of the letter dated 19th January, 2011 written by a Deputy General Manager of the electricity corporation to the corporate office along with which a list of part-time workers engaged by the unit is annexed. The name of the petitioner appears at Sl. No.9 of the said annexure. Her initial engagement is shown to be from 1st January, 2004 and the concurrence of the Finance Department is stated to have been granted on 15th June, 2004. The petitioner has also produced a letter dated 19th November, 2012 written by the Deputy General Manager, Electricity Division of Dhalai District to the corporate office containing a list of part-time workers working in the said unit. Here again, the name of the petitioner appears and the date of her initial engagement is stated to be 1st January, 2004. Thus, as per the official records, the petitioner was engaged w.e.f. 1st January, 2004 and not earlier. The crucial requirement of the Government scheme for conversion of a part-time engagement into DRW of the concerned person having been engaged prior to 31st March, 2003 therefore fails. The petitioner has not produced any reliable evidence of her engagement since 1st February, 2003. The letter dated 19th January, 2011 written by the local unit to the corporate office predated the Government scheme for conversion of part-time engagement into DRW. This adds to the reliability of the document. As against this, the petitioner's sole reliance is on a certificate issued by Senior Manager, Electrical Division, Ambassa which states that the petitioner was engaged as a Part Time Worker since 1st February, 2003. However, as correctly pointed out by counsel for the electricity corporation, there is no matching evidence in support of this certificate and in any case the Senior Manager had no authority to issue such a certificate. The contents of the certificate are also in conflict with other official documents.

In the result, petition fails and is dismissed. Pending application(s), if any, also stands disposed of.