Court Orders Payment of Unpaid Wages with Interest; Affirms No Right to Regularization for Casual Employees
In a significant ruling, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has denied the plea of Shahid Mehraj, a former employee of Jammu and Kashmir Cement Limited (JKCL), seeking regularization of his employment and deployment to other government departments. The judgment was delivered by Justice Sanjay Dhar, who emphasized that employees engaged on a consolidated or casual basis do not have the right to claim regularization or continuity in service.
Shahid Mehraj, who was initially employed on compassionate grounds after the death of his father, sought directions for regularization and deployment similar to other employees of the defunct JKCL. His father, a former Machinery Attendant at JKCL, had retired before succumbing to cancer. Mehraj contended that he should be appointed on a regular basis, citing the hazardous nature of duties performed by his father.
However, the court ruled that compassionate appointments are only permissible if the employee dies while in service, not after retirement. The court further noted that the government’s decision to wind up JKCL and deploy only those employees appointed on a substantive basis in graded scales was valid. Casual or consolidated employees, like Mehraj, were not covered under the government order for redeployment.
In a related directive, the court ordered the respondents to release unpaid wages to Mehraj for the period he actually worked with JKCL. It mandated that these payments be made within three months, failing which interest at the rate of 6% per annum would accrue from the date of filing the petition until realization.
The court’s decision aligns with a prior judgment by the Division Bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in the case of Ghulam Nabi Bhat and Others, which similarly upheld that casual employees cannot claim the same benefits as those appointed on a permanent basis.
Bottom line:-
Employees engaged on a consolidated basis or casual employees have no right to claim regularization, continuity in service, or deployment to other government departments after the winding up of their organization.
Statutory provision(s):
- SRO 43 of 1994
- Government Order No.48-IND of 2021
Shahid Mehraj v. UT of J&K, (Jammu And Kashmir) : Law Finder Doc id # 2916440
