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Judgment
Tapen Sen, J.—The Petitioners have prayed for an Order commanding upon the Respondents to give them employment on regular basis and to absorb/regularise them in their services without any further delay. They have also prayed for a Writ of prohibition restraining and prohibiting the Respondents from discontinuing with their services till disposal of the Writ Petition. Other consequential prayers have been made including, that during the pendency and till disposal of the Writ Petition, the Respondents should allow the Petitioners to continue in an uninterrupted manner. The Petitioner No. 25, Pintu Sur was added as a Co-Petitioner on the basis of his prayer made in CAN 10557 of 2011 by Order dated 5.1.2012. The Interlocutory Application was allowed and therefore no Order is being passed thereon at this stage save and except to observe that on record, there are 25 Petitioners now who have made the aforesaid prayers.
According to the Petitioners, they have the requisite qualifications and eligibility and their names were duly recorded in the concerned Employment Exchanges. They were sponsored for various Group-C and Group-D posts under the Respondent No. 3 (the Executive Council of the Indian Maritime University). They were selected on the basis of interviews against regular posts and were appointed on adhoc basis for a limited period which were renewed from time to time by artificial breaks.
It is stated that the Petitioner No. 1 was sponsored by the Zilla Sainik Board as he was an Ex-serviceman. He and the Petitioner Nos. 2 to 19 were appointed on adhoc basis w.e.f. 22.6.2011 to 18.9.2011. The Petitioner No. 20 was also appointed w.e.f. 22.6.2011 to 18.9.2011.
The Petitioner No. 21 was however not appointed after his tenure from 22.6.2011 to 18.9.2011 came to an end.
Similarly, the Petitioner No. 22 was also not appointed after 18.9.2011 but he was given seasonal appointment with lower contractual rate which was not accepted by him and he turned down the appointment with a protest letter. The Petitioner Nos. 23 and 24 were not appointed on regular post of Safaiwala but were given seasonal appointment. According to the Petitioner No. 25, Pintu Sur, he had stated in his Application being CAN 10557 of 2011 that he had joined as a Peon on 13.9.2006 in the Maritime Engineering Research Institute and since then, he has been working as such but with artificial breaks.
These Petitioners have stated that they are serving the Indian Maritime University, Kolkata campus as non-regular employees for a period ranging from 8 years w.e.f. 2003. According to them, the Respondent No. 2 University was established in the year 2008 by an Act of Parliament being the Indian Maritime University Act, 2008.
According to the Petitioners, since they were appointed through a regular selection process against existing vacancies, their appointments, therefore cannot be said to be "backdoor appointments" nor can they be said to be illegal or irregular and in that background, they have stated that although the University had agreed initially to take all the existing employees and although they invited options from the existing employees including the Petitioners, they did not however regularise them. Under these circumstances, the present Writ Petition has been filed.
A supplementary Affidavit has been filed wherein it has been stated that the IMU Kolkata campus, after receiving Notice on 23.9.2011 in respect of this case, decided to appoint some candidates on casual/adhoc basis but have denied giving benefits to the Petitioners. On 29.9.2011, this supplementary Affidavit was taken on record and the Respondent No. 3 was directed to maintain status quo.
An Affidavit-in-opposition has been filed by the Respondents who have stated that the Petitioners are only tenure employees and had never been appointed by the University on sanctioned vacant posts and none of them have served in the University and as such, they do not have any right to be absorbed. They have further stated that the Petitioners were engaged temporarily for clearing and other related jobs of the Institute under the Administrative control of the Indian Institute of Maritime Studies which is a society under the Administrative control of the Ministry of Shipping and which was registered as such in the year 2002 under which the Marine Engineering and Research Institute, Kolkata which was brought under the domain of the Society. On establishment of the said Society, the central government employees were transferred to the said Indian Institute of Maritime Studies (IIMS) along with their posts without deputation allowances. The Petitioners were not central government employees nor were they transferred from MERI to IIMS along with other central government employees and therefore, none of them can be said to have been engaged against any sanctioned vacant post. They have also stated that the Government of India had issued an Order on 23.4.2010 to the Pay and Accounts Officer mentioning that financial support to the University is subject to the Group-D posts being entirely outsourced.
These Respondents have stated that these Petitioners therefore, do not have any legal right to claim regularisation.
An Affidavit-in-reply has been filed wherein it has been stated that most of the Petitioners were initially appointed either as Group-C or Group-D employees under MERI with a particular scale of pay against sanctioned strength vide Annexure-R/1 as appended to the Reply. The Petitioners cannot claim that they are government employees. They were all temporary/adhoc employees of the Society. Consequently they cannot claim regularisation as a matter of right. Under the Circumstances, this Writ Petition is Dismissed. No Order as to costs.
W.P. No. 16892 (W) of 2011
The Judgment of the case being W.P. No. 16569 (W) of 2011 will govern this case also.
Upon appropriate Application(s) being made, urgent Photostat Certified copy of this Judgment, be given/issued expeditiously subject to usual terms and conditions.