Case: Union of India (UOI) and Ors Vs. SANT LAL &amp; ORS.ETC.ETC

still pending before courts. Consequently, several departments and instrumentalities did not commence the one-time regularisation process. On the other hand, some government departments or instrumentalities undertook the one-time exercise excluding several employees from consideration either on the ground that their cases were pending in courts or due to sheer oversight. In such circumstances, the employees who were entitled to be considered in terms of para 53 of the decision in Umadevi, will not lose their right to be considered for regularisation, merely because the one-time exercise was completed without considering their cases, or because the six-month period mentioned in para 53 of Umadevi has expired. The one-time exercise should consider all daily-wage/ad hoc/casual employees who had put in 10 years of continuous service as on 10-4-2006 without availing the protection of any interim orders of courts or tribunals. If any employer had held the one-time exercise in terms of para 53 of Umadevi, but did not consider the cases of some employees who were entitled to the benefit of para 53 of Umadevi, the employer concerned should consider their cases also, as a continuation of the one-time exercise. The one-time exercise will be concluded only when all the employees who are entitled to be considered in terms of para 53 of Umadevi, are so considered. 11. The object behind the said direction in para 53 of Umadevi is two-fold. First is to ensure that those who have put in more than ten years of continuous service without the protection of any interim orders of courts or tribunals, before the date of decision in Umadevi was rendered, are considered for regularisation in view of their long service. Second is to ensure that the departments/instrumentalities do not perpetuate the practice of employing persons on daily-wage/ad hoc/casual basis for long periods and then periodically regularise them on the ground that they have served for more than ten years, thereby defeating the constitutional or statutory provisions relating to recruitment and appointment. The true effect of the direction is that all persons who have worked for more than ten years as on 10-4-2006 [the date of decision in Umadevi] without the protection of any interim order of any court or tribunal, in vacant posts, possessing the requisite qualification, are entitled to be considered for regularisation. The fact that the employer has not undertaken such exercise of regularisation within six months of the decision in Umadevi or that such exercise was undertaken only in regard to a limited few, will not disentitle such employees, the right to be considered for regularisation in terms of the above directions in Umadevi as a one-time measure. 23. The judgment of this Court in Uma Devi does not preclude the claims of employees who seek regularization after the exercise has been undertaken with respect to some employees, provided that the said employees have completed the years of service as mandated by Uma Devi. The ruling casts an obligation on the State and its instrumentalities to grant a fair opportunity of regularization to all such employees which are entitled according to the mandate under Uma Devi and ensure that the benefit is not conferred on a limited few. The subsequent regularization of employees who have completed the requisite period of service is to be considered as a continuation of the one-time exercise. 24. The decisions of this Court in Uma Devi and ML Kesari were considered by a two-judge bench of this Court in Narendra Kumar Tiwari v. State of Jharkhand (2018) 8 SCC 238. Justice Madan Lokur construed the decision in Uma Devi in the following terms: 7. The purpose and intent of the decision in Umadevi was therefore twofold, namely, to prevent irregular or illegal appointments in the future and secondly, to confer a benefit on those irregularly appointed in the past.... 25. The Court noted in the above judgment that if a strict and literal interpretation was given to the decision in Uma Devi, no employee from the State of Jharkhand appointed on an irregular basis could ever be regularized as the State was formed on 15 November 2000 and the cut-off date had been fixed as 10 April 2006. The intent of the Court was to grant similarly-placed employees who had put the requisite years of service as mandated by Uma Devi, the benefit of regularization. The Court thus held that the Jharkhand Sarkar ke Adhinasth Aniyamit Rup se Niyukt Ewam Karyarat Karmiyo ki Sewa Niyamitikaran Niyamawali, 2015 (the Regularisation Rules) must be interpreted in a pragmatic manner and employees of the State who had completed 10 years of service on the date of promulgation of the rules, ought to be regularized. In doing so, the Court ensured that employees in the State of Jharkhand who had completed the same years of service as employees from other States, are granted parity in terms of regularization. The spirit of non-discrimination and equity runs through the decisions in Uma Devi, ML Kesari and Narendra Kumar Tiwari. 26. In this background, the issue which now arises before this Court is in regard to the effective direction which would govern the present case. The High Court has directed the Union of India to absorb the casual workmen, if it is not possible at the Institute in question, then in any other establishment. The latter part of the direction, as we have already noted, cannot be sustained. Equally, in our opinion, the authorities cannot be heard to throw their hands in despair by submitting that there are no vacancies and that it had already regularized such of the persons in the seniority list, who reported for work. The Tribunal has entered a finding of fact that this defence is clearly not borne out of the record. Accordingly, we are of the view that having decided to implement the decision of the Tribunal, which was affirmed by the High Court, the Union of India must follow a rational principle and abide strictly by the seniority list in proceeding to regularize the workmen concerned.

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

Explanation:
1[ds]13. We find merit in the contention that the direction to consider the casual workers for regularization in other establishments was not justified.14. We must, at the outset, note that the earlier decision of the Tribunal was rendered on 6 January, 2006 while the decision of the High Court was rendered on 23 March, 2006. The judgment of the Constitution Bench of this Court in Secretary, State of Karnataka v. Uma Devi (3) (2006) 4 SCC 1   was delivered on 10 April, 200619. In the present case, the original order passed by the Tribunal did not contain a mandamus for regularization. The order mandated that a seniority list should be maintained by the Union of India and that the possibility of regularizing the casual workmen at the Regional Training Institute should be considered against existing and future vacancies in Group D posts. Acting on the basis of the decision of the Tribunal, which was affirmed by the High Court, the Union of India proceeded to formulate a seniority list and, in fact, regularized at least four individuals. The judgment of the High Court attained finality. Even before the decision in Uma Devi, as the Tribunal noted, the workmen had put in over twelve years of service. The Tribunal, in our view, justifiably held that the action of selecting juniors for regularization, by-passing in the process, persons who had put in longer years of service was manifestly unfair and arbitrary. This direction of the Tribunal has been affirmed by the High Court in its impugned decision. The arbitrariness in the conduct of the authorities at the Institute is writ large in the facts of this case. Picking up individuals for regularization, while ignoring seniors shows that a favoured few have been rewarded. This is arbitrary20. Following the logic of the two decisions of this Court which have been noted earlier, we are of the view that the decision in Uma Devi cannot be used as a charter to discriminate between similarly placed employees, once the Union of India in fact takes a decision to regularize the individuals borne on a seniority list. This decision, as we have already noted earlier, was taken in pursuance of the judgment of the Tribunal and of the High Court both of which were rendered before the decision in Uma Devi23. The judgment of this Court in Uma Devi does not preclude the claims of employees who seek regularization after the exercise has been undertaken with respect to some employees, provided that the said employees have completed the years of service as mandated by Uma Devi. The ruling casts an obligation on the State and its instrumentalities to grant a fair opportunity of regularization to all such employees which are entitled according to the mandate under Uma Devi and ensure that the benefit is not conferred on a limited few. The subsequent regularization of employees who have completed the requisite period of service is to be considered as a continuation of the one-time exercise24. The decisions of this Court in Uma Devi and ML Kesari were considered by a two-judge bench of this Court in Narendra Kumar Tiwari v. State of Jharkhand (2018) 8 SCC 238.  Justice Madan Lokur construed the decision in Uma Devi in the following terms:7. The purpose and intent of the decision in Umadevi was therefore twofold, namely, to prevent irregular or illegal appointments in the future and secondly, to confer a benefit on those irregularly appointed in the past25. The Court noted in the above judgment that if a strict and literal interpretation was given to the decision in Uma Devi, no employee from the State of Jharkhand appointed on an irregular basis could ever be regularized as the State was formed on 15 November 2000 and the cut-off date had been fixed as 10 April 2006. The intent of the Court was to grant similarly-placed employees who had put the requisite years of service as mandated by Uma Devi, the benefit of regularization. The Court thus held that the Jharkhand Sarkar ke Adhinasth Aniyamit Rup se Niyukt Ewam Karyarat Karmiyo ki Sewa Niyamitikaran Niyamawali, 2015 (the Regularisation Rules) must be interpreted in a pragmatic manner and employees of the State who had completed 10 years of service on the date of promulgation of the rules, ought to be regularized. In doing so, the Court ensured that employees in the State of Jharkhand who had completed the same years of service as employees from other States, are granted parity in terms of regularization. The spirit of non-discrimination and equity runs through the decisions in Uma Devi, ML Kesari and Narendra Kumar TiwariThe High Court has directed the Union of India to absorb the casual workmen, if it is not possible at the Institute in question, then in any other establishment. The latter part of the direction, as we have already noted, cannot be sustained. Equally, in our opinion, the authorities cannot be heard to throw their hands in despair by submitting that there are no vacancies and that it had already regularized such of the persons in the seniority list, who reported for work. The Tribunal has entered a finding of fact that this defence is clearly not borne out of the record. Accordingly, we are of the view that having decided to implement the decision of the Tribunal, which was affirmed by the High Court, the Union of India must follow a rational principle and abide strictly by the seniority list in proceeding to regularize the workmen concerned.