SC decries practice of continuing irregular employees

The Supreme Court has decried the "pernicious" practice of continuing with irregular employees, contrary to a judicial mandate by a Constitution bench.

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that the regularisation rules must be given a pragmatic interpretation and those who have completed 10 years of service on the date of promulgation of the regularisation rules, ought to be given the benefit of the service rendered by them.

Relying upon the decision of the Constitution Bench of the apex court in 'Secretary, State of Karnataka and Ors vs Umadevi and Ors', the court said such employees who
have completed 10 years of service should be regularised unless there is some valid objection to it like misconduct etc.

The top court allowed an appeal by a group of employees from Jharkhand against the high court's decision of 2017, dismissing their plea for regularisation.

The court said in the present case, the state government continued with the irregular appointments for almost a decade, in a clear indication that it believed that it was all right to continue with irregular appointments, and whenever required, terminate their services.

"This is nothing but a form of exploitation of the employees by not giving them the benefits of regularisation and by placing the sword of Damocles over their head," the bench said.

The court said it would be worthwhile for the state of Jharkhand to henceforth consider making regular appointments only and dropping the idea of making irregular appointments so as to short-circuit the process of regular appointments.