Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 14: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has dismissed a writ petition filed by a former need-based worker of the Public Works Department (R&B), holding that disengaged daily-rated staff have no vested right to re-employment and that belated claims are not maintainable in law.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal delivered the judgment in petition filed by Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat, son of Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, resident of Ussan Bangil Kwarhama, Baramulla. The petitioner, represented by Advocate Shabir Ahmad Najar, had challenged the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Srinagar Bench dated May 19, 2025, which had dismissed his plea seeking re-engagement in the department.
Bhat argued that although he was disengaged in 2020, he had made repeated representations for re-engagement, most recently on March 19, 2025, and that the authorities ought to have considered his request sympathetically. However, the Bench noted that he had not disclosed the exact date and month of his disengagement and that his petition had been filed nearly five years after the event.
The Division Bench endorsed the Tribunal’s findings that the petition suffered from inordinate delay and that the petitioner failed to demonstrate any enforceable right to be re-employed. Observing that the writ was “bereft of merit,” the Bench refused to interfere with the CAT’s order and dismissed the petition.
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