Telangana High Court
Jetti Venkateswarlu, vs State Of Telangana, on 12 April, 2023
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE E. V. VENUGOPAL
WRIT PETITION No.37337 of 2018
ORDER:
The present Writ Petition is filed under Article 226 of Constitution of India for the following relief/s:-
''... to issue a writ, order or direction more in the nature of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondent Corporation in not giving preference to the petitioners in the recruitment of Contract Labour for maintenance of V and VI Stages, more particularly in VII Stage of Kothagudem Thermal Power Station (KTPS), Palvoncha, Bhadradri-Kothagudem District who worked in construction of the said unit for considerable period is illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional and contrary to the guidelines and consequently direct the respondents to give preference to the petitioners in the recruitment of Contract Labour for maintenance of V, VI, VII Stages, more particularly in VII Stage, of Kothagudem Thermal Power Station, Palvoncha and pass such other order or orders...''
2. Heard Sri V. Ravinder Rao, learned senior counsel representing Sri P. Narasimha, learned counsel for the petitioners and Sri G. Vidyasagar, learned senior counsel representing Smt K. Udayasri, learned counsel for respondent Nos.2 to 6, learned Government Pleader for Revenue appearing for respondent Nos.7 and 9 and learned Government Pleader for Labour appearing for respondent No.
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3. It is the case of petitioners that they worked as unskilled/skilled labour for construction of V, VI and VII stages of Kothagudem Thermal Power Station, Palvoncha, Khammam District. Since, the petitioners resided nearby Palvoncha, the respondent Corporation entrusted them with construction work of BGR Energy Systems Limited/BHEL and the Contractor engaged the labour including the petitioners for completion of the said work. The construction of V, VI and VII Stages of KTPS has been completed. After completion of said work, the respondents have not allowed the petitioners to discharge any duties. The respondents made attempts to recruit unskilled labour for the maintenance of said unit directly. The petitioners and their societies/agencies have requested the respondents to give preference to them and other labour who worked in the construction of the said unit for the last two to ten years.
4. It is submitted that the Deputy Commissioner of Labour, vide proceedings Rc.No.A/2303/KMM/2014, dated 04.03.2015 has opined that the demand of the Joint Action Committee was genuine and therefore, requested the Management to accommodate 150 workmen as Contract 3 Labour. But the same was not considered by the Management. The Superintending Engineer, Kakatiya Thermal Power Plant, Warangal vide letter dated 25.06.2013 also informed that the respondents are not engaging the contract labour as per requirement. The authorities are proposing to start operation and maintenance of KTPS VII stage shortly which is about 800 MWs and therefore there is requirement of nearly 1600 members for maintenance of the unit. The petitioners filed W.P.Nos.29058 and 29062 of 2011 before this Court. The same were disposed of directing them to make fresh representations in continuation to the representations already made. Although the petitioners submitted representations, but the same were not considered. Hence, the present Writ Petition.
5. Counter affidavit filed by respondent Nos. 2 to 6 denying the allegations made in the affidavit.
6. The averments made in the counter affidavit are that the TSGENCO is engaged in generation of electricity in the State of Telangana. It has a power plant known as Kothagudem Thermal Power Station located at Palvoncha, Khammam, Telangana State. The stages I to IV of the power station were 4 constructed during the years, 1966 to 1978. The V stage was commissioned in the year, 1998. The KTPS VI stage was completed on 23.10.2011. The construction work of the entire KTPS - VII stage was awarded to M/s. BHEL under Engineering, Procurement and Construction. M/s. BHEL was awarded with the contract for construction, erection, testing and commissioning of the Main Plant, Balance of Plant (BOP) equipment including civil works, training of O & M personnel, start up and commissioning activities and supply of mandatory spares including warranty period of 365 days from the date of completion of commercial operation of the complete coal fired super critical Thermal Unit of 1 x 800 MW KTPS stage VII, Unit-12.
7. The project continues to be in the control of BHEL till the commercial operation date is notified and thereafter it will have 365 days warranty. It is the sole responsibility of BHEL to engage its sub-contractors who inturn engaged their personnel for the execution of the works awarded vide letter of intent dated 27.12.2014.
8. It is pertinent to note that W.P.Nos.36490 and 37998 of 2012 were disposed of by order dated 09.12.2016 recording 5 that the petitioners cannot claim any right for appointment with TSGENCO as there never existed any employee-employer relationship between them. A similar writ petition No.41079 of 2017 was disposed of by order dated 13.12.2017 recording that the petitioners are not working in the respondent- Corporation and they cannot seek any absorption.
9. The relief sought for in the present writ petition is similar to that of the relief sought in W.P.Nos.29058 and 29062 of 2011 wherein this Court was pleased to dispose of the writ petitions by common order giving liberty to the petitioners therein to make fresh representation in continuation of representation already made, within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of that order. Since, similar relief is sought for by the writ petitioners in the present writ petition seeking to give preference to the petitioners in the recruitment of contract labour for maintenance of V, VI and VII stages particularly in stage VII. Hence, learned counsel prayed to dismiss the Writ Petition.
10. A perusal of the material record shows that already several writ petitions were filed by some of the writ petitioners and the same were disposed of. Again the writ petitioners are 6 making unsuccessful attempts to get a similar relief in one or the other way. In that process, the present writ petition is filed.
11. The contention of Sri Vidya Sagar, learned senior counsel appearing for respondent Nos.2 to 6 is that the VII stage of construction of KTPS has commenced and completed. There is no necessity for erection/construction of any further KTPS projects. It is to be noted that absorption of 23,667 employees was the subject matter of the W.P. (PIL) No.149 of 2017 and the Division Bench of this Court by Order dated 18.09.2018 dismissed the said writ petition stating that in pursuance of the settlement, the TSGENCO has absorbed 3,689 candidates working in various units including KTPS. In view of the absorption of the said outsourced personnel and also undertaking given by the Government of India, the personnel working in the said units would also become surplus and their services would be utilized in Stage VII after the commercial operation. Therefore, there is no requirement of man power and the consideration of the case of the writ petitioners does not arise. He submits that at the present juncture, it is not possible to engage the personnel as 7 contract labour since there is sufficient man power to run the VII stage unit even after handing over the same by the contractor on the date of commercial operation.
12. The averments of the counter affidavit also state that the employee ratio with reference to the power generation is very high and it is uneconomical to engage any more persons in Thermal Power Generating units at KTPS. As per the standards the norms for the Manpower of Thermal Generation is 0.486 Technical and 0.144 non-technical personnel (Man/MW). Whereas at present the ratio is around 2.0 which is highly abnormal and steps are required to be taken to reduce the man power ratio.
13. Learned Government Pleader for Revenue appearing for respondent Nos.7 and 9 submits that G.O.Ms.No.20 SW (TW), dated 31.03.1999 provides for only one VTDA in a village, hence ITDA will recommend for work allocation through VTDA only. The total number of registered voters of the village will become the members of the VTDA. In the past, Project Officer ITDA had issued guidelines to entrust 80% works to regular VTDA and remaining 20% of other tribal societies in Khammam District. But over the year the circumstances have 8 changed. There are more number of VTDAs societies and individuals are coming and requesting for the employment to be provided in KTPS. Therefore, to render justice to all the VTDs, there is only one criteria of considering (23) VTDA societies for proposing the names for maintenance works.
14. Further, it is evident that in W.P.No.5490 of 2016, the petitioners request for their engagement on outsourcing basis will be examined along with similarly situated outsourced labour as per the exigencies of work in KTPS VII stage, in a phased manner, subject to their seniority and technical suitability depending upon work requirements for construction of KTPS VII stage after ascertaining the veracity of documents. As per the said order, the request of the writ petitioners was already considered. The eligible candidates have already been employed in KTPS. Again some of the petitioners filed the present writ petition with the same request. Moreover, the respondents are not in a position to bear any more additional burden and induct some more persons into the employment.
15. Having agitated similar request in the previous writ petitions, the petitioners are again making unsuccessful 9 attempts to secure employment in the respondent Corporation in one way or the other. Even though the plight of the writ petitioners could be understood to some extent but still in strict sense, the respondent Corporation is not in a position to extend any financial help to the writ petitioners and hence, the Corporation is not in a position to consider the request of the writ petitioners.
16. This Court after perusing the orders in earlier writ petitions being preferred by some of the writ petitioners is of the view that the writ petitioners had already availed the remedy and some of them had the opportunity to be absorbed in the Corporation. Some of the writ petitioners who were unsuccessful have not met the eligibility criterian in terms of the exercise taken earlier on the intervention of this Court. Coming to this Court at this stage, to pass directions and to consider the case of the writ petitioners at least on humanitarian grounds will not fructify for the simple reason that the KTPS has drawn a line and the entire exercise has been completed. Protracting the litigation on one pretext or the other will not yield any result to the writ petitioners except sheer waste of time. In the process of expecting any 10 employment opportunity from the respondents, the petitioners may loose their precious time in eking out their livelihood resulting in financial duress thereon. To put straight the petitioners must understand the reality and remain aloof from their past nostalgic ideology.
17. Hence, this Court is not inclined to allow the writ petition. However, the petitioners are at liberty to approach respondent No.7-ITDA by forming into a co-operative society to put forth their grievances if any. Upon hearing the same respondent No.7 may put forth the request to the KTPS and facilitate to devise ways and means for awarding O & M contract in a phased manner on par with the other contractors.
18. With these observations, the writ petition is dismissed. No costs. Miscellaneous Petitions, pending if any, shall stand closed.
____________________________ JUSTICE E. V. VENUGOPAL .04.2023 ESP 11 THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE E. V. VENUGOPAL W.P.No.37337 of 2018 Dated: .04.2023 ESP