Case: Rajinder Singh Chauhan  Vs. State Of Haryana

services. The probation period will be 12 months for all the posts of Class I, II, III which may further be extended by such time as deemed fit, but in no case it will exceed 24 months, in all. The probation period for Class-IV shall be 6 months which may further be extended by such time as may be deemed fit but in no case total period of probation shall exceed 12 months. 4(c). "Temporary" employee means an employee who has been appointed for a limited period for work which is of an essentially temporary nature. 4(d). An "Apprentice" means a learner who is given a nominal stipend during the period which will ordinarily be of 6 months before he is taken up as a temporary employee. 4(e). Every employee shall be given a written order regarding his appointment, confirmation, promotion, transfer and ending of service as the case may be. Rule 10 (5): If the work and conduct of an employee during the period of probation is found satisfactory, he will be confirmed from the date of completion of the probation period. 10(6). No employee will be deemed to have been confirmed in the federation service unless specific orders in this regard are issued. The appointing authority shall have to take a decision regarding confirmation or reversion or removal of a probationer within the prescribed period of probation. 35(b). Confirmed employee shall be entitled to one months pay and allowance for every completed year of service. In addition to this, they will also be entitled to such pay and allowance as may be due to them on account of accumulated earned leave upto the maximum of one month. Rule 35(b) inter-alia provides that confirmed employees shall be entitled to one months pay and allowance for every completed year of service on retrenchment of service. In addition they are entitled to pay and allowance as may be admissible to them on account of accumulative earned leave upto the maximum of one month. 12. The stand of the respondents was that the appellants were not confirmed employees. The appointment order of each of the appellants contains the stipulations which are as follows: "1. Your appointment as Sales man is purely temporary.2. During the period of probation, your services are liable to be terminated without giving any notice or assigning any reason.3. You shall be governed by the terms and conditions contained in the Staff Service Rules of the Federation, amended from time to time." 13. This is a case where the period of probation is fixed having regard to Rule 4(b) read with Rule 10 as quoted above. Rule 10(6) no doubt provides that no employee shall be deemed to have been confirmed in the service unless specific order in this regard is issued. Relying on this provision, learned counsel for the fourth respondent submitted that there was no specific orders of confirmation and, therefore, the appellants should be deemed to have continued as probationers till the date of termination of their services. A similar stand was considered in Om Prakash Maurya v. U.P. Co- operative Sugar Factories Federation, Lucknow and Ors. (AIR 1986 SC 1844 ). A Constitution Bench of this Court in The State of Punjab v. Dharam Singh (AIR 1968 SC 1210 ) noted as follows: "Where as in the present case, the service rules fix a certain period of time beyond which the probationary period cannot be extended and an employee appointed or promoted to a post on probation is allowed to continue in the post after completion of the maximum period of probation without an express order of confirmation, he cannot be deemed to continue in that post as a probationer by implication. The reason is that such an implication is negatived by the service rule forbidding extension of the probationary period beyond the maximum period fixed by it. In such a case, it is permissible to draw the inference that the employee allowed to continue in the post on completion of the maximum period of probation has been confirmed in the post by implication." 14. In High Court of M.P. through Registrar and Ors. v. Satya Narayan Jhavar (2001 (7) SCC 161 ), this Court categorised the provisions for probation as follows: "The question of deemed confirmation in service jurisprudence, which is dependent upon the language of the relevant service rules, has been the subject-matter of consideration before this Court, times without number in various decisions and there are three lines of cases on this point. One line of cases is where in the service rules or in the letter of appointment a period of probation is specified and power to extend the same is also conferred upon the authority without prescribing any maximum period of probation and if the officer is continued beyond the prescribed or extended period, he cannot be deemed to be confirmed. In such cases there is no bar against termination at any point of time after expiry of the period of probation. The other line of cases is that where while there is a provision in the rules for initial probation and extension thereof, a maximum period for such extension is also provided beyond which it is not permissible to extend probation. The inference in such cases is that the officer concerned is deemed to have been confirmed upon expiry of the maximum period of probation in case before its expiry the order of termination has not been passed. The last line of cases is where, though under the rules maximum period of probation is prescribed, but the same requires a specific act on the part of the employer by issuing an order of confirmation and of passing a test for the purposes of confirmation. In such cases, even if the maximum period of probation has expired and neither any order of confirmation has been passed nor has the person concerned passed the requisite test, he cannot be deemed to have been confirmed merely because the said period has expired."

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 1

Explanation:
1[ds]9. Section 25-F appears in Chapter V-A of the Act which relates to lay-off and retrenchment. Section 25-K, L and N appear in Chapter V-B which relates to special provisions relating to lay-off, retrenchment and closure in certain establishments. In other words Chapter V-A deals with the general provisions relating to lay-off and retrenchment, while special provisions have been made for certain establishments covered by Chapter V-B. Section 25-N refers to workman in an industrial establishment. The expression "Industrial Establishment" is defined in Section 25-L, which means a factory or a mine or a plantation. Admittedly, the employer is not covered by the definition of the "Industrial Establishment". Therefore, the High Court was right in holding that Section 25-N has no application.This is a case where the period of probation is fixed having regard to Rule 4(b) read with Rule 10 as quoted above. Rule 10(6) no doubt provides that no employee shall be deemed to have been confirmed in the service unless specific order in this regard is issued. Relying on this provision, learned counsel for the fourth respondent submitted that there was no specific orders of confirmation and, therefore, the appellants should be deemed to have continued as probationers till the date of termination of their