The Allahabad High Court has ruled that once employees are absorbed into regular posts, any flaws in their initial appointment process are considered to have been corrected.
The division bench of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Dr. Justice Yogendra Kumar Srivastava delivered this judgment while hearing an appeal related to the termination of Assistant Teachers who were initially appointed on an ad-hoc basis.
The petitioners were appointed in 1987 and 1989 but were terminated shortly after on the grounds that the posts were not sanctioned. However, an interim order of the High Court stayed this termination, allowing them to continue their service. In 2006, they were officially absorbed into regular posts, and their petition was dismissed as not pressed in 2010.
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In 2017, the District Inspector of Schools questioned the salary being paid to the petitioners. A notice issued to the college principal led to fresh litigation, during which the petitioners were eventually restrained from working. Despite withdrawing their previous petition on the promise of regularisation, new proceedings prevented them from continuing.
"The appellants having been absorbed on existing vacancies, the irregularity, if any, initially in their appointments, would be deemed to have been cured,"
the Court observed, referencing Supreme Court decisions in Mansaram v. S.P. Pathak and Madras Aluminium Co. Ltd. v. Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.
The petitioners relied heavily on these precedents, arguing that the delay in taking any disciplinary action and their continued service indicated implied regularisation. It was also pointed out that in the Radhey Shyam Yadav case, the Supreme Court had ruled in favour of employees where the delay in action was due to the State’s fault.
Another crucial reference was made to Vinod Kumar v. Union of India, where the Supreme Court acknowledged that long-term service of temporary employees justifies their reclassification as regular.
"This Court finds merit in the appellants' arguments and holds that their service conditions, as evolved over time, warrant a reclassification from temporary to regular status," the Supreme Court had observed in Vinod Kumar.
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Taking these judgments into account, the Allahabad High Court concluded that since the appellants had served continuously until retirement, their service must be seen as regular. Therefore, their appeals were allowed, and the Court held that their termination was unjustified.
"The appellants were regularised and had been working till the day they retired which meant that they were in continuous service," the bench noted, allowing the special appeals.
Case Title: Devendra Singh v. State of UP and 4 Others
Special Appeal No.: 167 of 2024
