HC clears way for regularisation of daily wage, ad hoc & contractual employees
Saturday, 24 February 2024 | PNS | NAINITAL
Disposing of the petition challenging the 2013 manual of the government for regularisation of employees, the Uttarakhand High Court has upheld the regularisation of daily wage, ad hoc and contractual employees regularised before December 4, 2018. As per the manual, the other daily wage or contractual employees will have to serve for 10 years before regularisation. The division bench of chief justice Ritu Bahri and justice Alok Verma gave this direction while hearing the petitions of Nainital district resident NS Bisht, Haldwani resident Himanshu Joshi and others.
It is pertinent to mention here that the High Court had stayed the implementation of the 2013 manual on December 4, 2018, ordering a stay on the regularisation of daily wage workers in government departments, corporations and other government bodies. The process of regularisation of such employees was on hold since then. According to the petitioners, their interests were being affected as employees were being regularised in government departments and other government bodies without any selection process. In line with Supreme Court directions in the Uma Devi versus Karnataka State, the State government made the employees regularisation manual in 2011 under which it was decided that employees who had worked for 10 or more years on daily wage, ad hoc or contract basis would be regularised. However, such employees in the new departments formed after creation of Uttarakhand could not be brought under the ambit of this manual.
The government issued a new manual in December 2013 under which such employees who had completed five or more years in service in December 2008 were eligible for regularisation. On the demand of various petitioners, the government amended the period to 10 years.
