Municipal Corporation of Delhi vs Sh. Rishi Pal and Another

Valmiki J Mehta, J.—The challenge by means of the present petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India is to the Award dated 6.6.1995 passed by the Industrial Tribunal whereby it was ordered that the workman Rishi Pal is entitled to be regularized from the date of his initial appointment i.e. 15.7.1981.

The only issue in this case is whether the workman is entitled to regularization from the date of his initial appointment or in due course as per the policy of the petitioner. The workman was appointed as a Mali/Baildar on daily wages basis.

It has now been held by the Supreme Court in a catena of decisions that regularization of an employee cannot de hors the rules of an organization and which violate constitutional principles. These judgments are Branch Manager, M.P. State Agro Industries Development Corpn. Ltd. and Another Vs. Shri S.C. Pandey, , Gangadhar Pillai Vs. Siemens Ltd., , State of M.P. and Others Vs. Lalit Kumar Verma, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. Vs. Dan Bahadur Singh and Others, State of Uttaranchal and Anr. v. Prantiya Sinchai Avam Bandh Yogana Shramik Mahaparishad (2007) 12 SCC 483, C.S. Azad Krishi Evam Prodyogiki Vishwavidyalaya Vs. United Trades Congress and Another, and Official Liquidator Vs. Dayanand and Others,

The counsel for the petitioner has contended that the workman had already been regularized however in terms of an extant policy he could not have been regularized from the date of his initial appointment. It has been argued that as per the office order dated 16.8.1989 the workman was rightly regularized only w.e.f.1.4.88 in accordance with the policy of the petitioner. I agree with the counsel for the petitioner because a daily wager can only be regularized in accordance with the policy of the petitioner. The admitted position is that the original appointment of the workman was not in a regular manner or through the employment exchange. Such employment being illegal cannot ordinarily be regularized. The matter is no longer res integra and covered by a Constitution Bench judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Secretary, State of Karnataka and Others Vs. Umadevi and Others, and which has been further reaffirmed in Dayanand''s case (supra). Accordingly, the impugned Award is set aside whereby the regularization of the workman was directed to be from the initial date of appointment on 15.7.1981. The workman will only be regularized in terms of the office order dated 16.8.1989 w.e.f. 1.4.1988.

The petition is therefore disposed of accordingly leaving the parties to bear their own costs.