The Punjab and Haryana high court has allowed Haryana to proceed with recruitment of 3,206 persons under the ministry of skilled development and physical training on regular basis.
The high court bench of justice GS Sandhawalia acted on an application filed by the state government seeking vacation of stay imposed in December 2019.
The recruitment for 3,206 posts in a dozen odd categories were to be carried out by Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) for the posts of engineering drawing instructor , computer operator and programming assistant instructor, employability skill instructor, computer instructor among others.
The stay was granted on pleas from some contractual employees who had argued that on account of the Regularisation Policy of 2014, they could not get favourable consideration as three year period of service was required. They are contractual employees who had served for more than 11 years and thus, in view of an apex court order of 2018 in which protection was given by the Supreme Court in some categories, they are entitled for the benefit of status quo.
The HC observed that the petitioners are contractual employees and if the government is going ahead to appoint regular persons, benefit of status quo cannot be extended in a blanket manner. “The same would go to the persons who had sought regularisation and were entitled for, it is on the strength of the earlier policies,” the court observed.
{{/usCountry}}The HC observed that the petitioners are contractual employees and if the government is going ahead to appoint regular persons, benefit of status quo cannot be extended in a blanket manner. “The same would go to the persons who had sought regularisation and were entitled for, it is on the strength of the earlier policies,” the court observed.
{{/usCountry}}It said that it would not be appropriate for the selection process to come to a grinding halt on that account. The HC has now modified the December 2019 order stating that government will be entitled to complete the selection process.
However, the same will be subject to the final decision of these petitions. The court made it clear that this order does not mean that the government has licence to dispense with the services of the petitioners immediately.
“As and only when the selection process is completed and the regular persons are duly selected, it would be open to the state, at that stage, to dispense with the services of the petitioners in a phased manner, on the joining of the regular candidates,” it said.