Saturday, 20 May 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
SC double bench rejects SLP of terminated employees
In a major setback for the 228 terminated employees of Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha waging a legal battle for their reinstatement the Supreme Court rejected their Special Leave Petition (SLP) on Friday. The counsel of the Vidhan Sabha secretariat Amit Tiwari said that the SLP submitted by 72 employees appointed in the year 2021 was taken up by a double bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Manoj Mishra for hearing on Friday. He said that the double bench rejected the SLP of the employees within one and half minutes.
Welcoming the decision of the SC, the Assembly speaker Ritu Khanduri said that the petition was dismissed by the SC after hearing the sides. She also expressed her gratitude to the SC for the decision.
It is pertinent to mention here that Khanduri had appointed a three member committee headed by former bureaucrat D K Kotia in September last year to investigate the allegation of backdoor appointments in Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha. In its report the committee found that the appointments were made in gross violation of all the norms. Acting on the recommendation of the committee, the Speaker on September 23 cancelled the appointment of 228 ad hoc employees recruited in the years 2016, 2020 and 2021. These appointments were made during the tenure of former speakers Govind Singh Kunjwal and Prem Chand Agarwal.
The removed employees knocked the door of the HC to challenge the decision of their termination. On October 15, the bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari ordered a stay on the removal of these employees. This stay was later vacated by the double bench of HC. The employees challenged the decision of HC in SC but on December 15, 2022 it rejected their plea. Now a double bench of the SC has also rejected the SLP of the terminated employees which can well be the end of road for their fight for reinstatement.
The Speaker has now decided that the posts of direct recruitment in Vidhan Sabha secretariat would be filled through the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission (UKPSC) and Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UKSSC).
