Himachal Pradesh High Court
State Of H.P. And Others vs Nek Ram And Others on 10 March, 2023
Bench: Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Virender Singh
IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA
LPA No.19 of 2023.
.
Date of decision: 10.03.2023.
State of H.P. and others ......Appellants.
Versus
Nek Ram and others .....Respondents.
Coram
The Hon'ble Mr. Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Judge.
The Hon'ble Mr. Justice Virender Singh, Judge.
Whether approved for reporting?1 No
For the Appellants : Mr. Anup Rattan, Advocate
General with Mr.
Yashwardhan Chauhan,
Senior Additional Advocate
General, Mr. J.S. Guleria,
Deputy Advocate General
and Mr. Rajat Chauhan,
Law Officer.
For the Respondents : Nemo
Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Judge (Oral)
CMP(M) No. 1483 of 2022.
For the reasons stated in the application, which is duly supported by an affidavit of Superintending Engineer, 8th Circle, HP PWD, Hamirpur, the application is allowed and 1 Whether the reporters of the local papers may be allowed to see the Judgment?Yes ::: Downloaded on - 14/03/2023 20:32:31 :::CIS 2 delay of 59 days' that has crept up in filing of the instant appeal is condoned. The application stands disposed of.
.
Appeal be registered LPA No.19 of 2023.
2. We really wonder why the State has filed the instant appeal. The respondent-writ petitioner was appointed as daily wage 'beldar' in the year 1993 and in terms of the judgment rendered by the learned writ Court has been held entitled to the benefit of regularization with effect from 01.01.2001.
3. The sole ground on which the appeal has been filed is that since the respondent would not have completed 10 years of continuous service till the year 2000 in terms of the judgment rendered by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Mool Raj Upadhyaya vs. State Of H.P., 1994 Supp. (2) SCC, 316, the order passed by the learned writ Court is liable to be set aside.
4. Noticeably, the judgment in Mool Raj Upadhyaya's case (supra) was based upon the policy of the State Government which prescribed 10 years of service for entitlement of regularization and subsequently the ::: Downloaded on - 14/03/2023 20:32:31 :::CIS 3 Government itself issued another policy in the year 2000 curtailing the period of service to 8 years.
.
5. Once that be so, obviously, the respondent, who had not completed 10 years of service either at the time of passing of the judgment in Mool Raj Upadhyaya's case (supra) or for that matter even on the date of issuance of the revised policy in the year 2000 would be entitled to regularization r on the basis of the latest policy i.e. the policy issued in the year 2000 which reduced the period of regular service from 10 years to 8 years so as to enable a workman for regularization of his services.
6. The issue in question is already covered by the judgment rendered by the learned single Judge in CWP No. 7140 of 2012 in case titled Gian Singh vs. State of H.P. and others, decided on 24.09.2014, wherein in para-7 it was observed as under:
"7. There is no justification or reasonable explanation offered by the respondents as to why the services of the petitioner were regularized on 1.1.2002 after completion of alleged 10 years of continuous service when admittedly the policy issued vide letter dated 26.9.2005 and circulated on 24.10.2005 (Annexure R-1) clearly provided for regularization of services of all the daily wagers, ::: Downloaded on - 14/03/2023 20:32:31 :::CIS 4 who had completed 8 years or more daily wages continuous service as on 31.3.2000 with minimum .
of 240 days in each calendar year. Accordingly, the petitioner is entitled to be regularized w.e.f. 1.1.2000 i.e. the date when he had completed 8 years of continuous service."
7. Noticeably, it was conceded by the appellants herein before the learned writ Court that the case of the down to respondent was covered by the ratio of the judgment laid in Gian Singh's case (supra) as is evident from para-14 of the impugned judgment which reads as under:
"14. In the present case also, the parties are ad-idem on one issue at least that regularisation policy dated 3.4.2000 was applicable to the petitioner. Reference can be made to the averments made in sub para (B) of para-3 of the preliminary submissions and also para (B) of para (1) of reply on merits of the reply filed on behalf of official respondents, which reads as under:
"(B). That the Executive Engineer, HPPWD, Tauni Devi Division vide his order No.PW/TDD/EA-II/2006-9669-15 dated 22.11.2006 (copy of order is attached as Annexure R-1), the petitioner was offered regularization upon completion of 8 years of service with prospective effect under the Govt. regularization policy dated 30.04.2000....."::: Downloaded on - 14/03/2023 20:32:31 :::CIS 5
8. It is in this background that we have expressed our anguish regarding the filing of the instant appeal by the .
State that too without there being any legal or factual grounds whatsoever to assail the judgment.
9. In view of the aforesaid discussion and for the reasons stated above, we find no merit in the instant appeal and the same is accordingly dismissed, so also the pending application, if any.
10. The State would be well-advised not to file such kind of frivolous appeals thereby clogging the dockets of this Court and would be better advised to implement the H.P. State Litigation Policy, 2011, as has been repeatedly directed by this Court in its various decisions, so as to ensure that there is no docket explosion at least at the instance and at the behest of the State Government.
11. Reference in this regard can conveniently be made to the judgments passed by this Court in CWP No.2646 of 2015 case titled Sat Dev Singh vs. State of H.P. and others, decided on 30.07.2019 and CWP No.1314 of 2016 case titled Nigma Devi vs. State of H.P. and others, decided on 30.08.2022.
::: Downloaded on - 14/03/2023 20:32:31 :::CIS 612. Let a copy of this order be sent to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Himachal Pradesh for .
issuance of necessary instructions for the implementation of the H.P. State Litigation Policy, 2011.
13. For compliance, to come up on 01.05.2023.
(Tarlok Singh Chauhan)
Judge
r (Virender Singh)
Judge
10th March, 2023.
(krt)
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