JAMMU, June 5: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has declined to order regularisation or deployment of a consolidated worker of Jammu and Kashmir Cement Limited in any other Government department, holding that a worker engaged on consolidated basis cannot claim parity with regular employees after winding up of the company.
Justice Sanjay Dhar passed the judgment in a petition filed by Shahid Mehraj, who had sought release of service benefits at par with similarly situated persons appointed on compassionate grounds, regularisation of his services and deployment in any other government department or organisation. The petitioner had also sought clearance of outstanding wages.
As per the case before the court, the petitioner’s father had worked as Machinery Attendant with JKCL at its Khrew factory for about 26 years and retired on March 31, 2014. Soon after retirement, he was diagnosed with Stage-IV lung cancer and died on May 10, 2014. The petitioner was later engaged on consolidated remuneration of Rs 4,500 for 89 days, which was subsequently enhanced to Rs 12,000.
The petitioner contended that after JKCL became a sick unit and the Government decided to wind it up, out of 333 employees, 303 were deployed in different Government departments under Government Order No. 48-IND of 2021 dated March 9, 2021, while the fate of remaining workers, including him, was not decided.
Rejecting the claim for regularisation, the Court observed that compassionate appointment is available only where an employee dies while in service. Since the petitioner’s father had admittedly died after retirement, the petitioner could not claim appointment on compassionate basis under SRO 43 of 1994.
The Court held that the respondents may have shown compassion by engaging him on consolidated basis, but such engagement did not confer any right to regular appointment.
The Court further held that only those JKCL employees who were appointed on substantive basis in graded pay scales were deployed to other government departments, corporations and organisations. Daily-rated or consolidated workers were not covered by the said government order.
Relying on a Division Bench judgment in Ghulam Nabi Bhat and Others Versus State of J&K and others, the Court observed that daily wage or consolidated workers cannot claim parity with regular or permanent employees of JKCL. It further held that a consolidated or casual employee has no right to continue in service and no enforceable claim for regularisation or continuity once JKCL has been wound up.
However, the Court granted limited relief to the petitioner on the issue of unpaid wages. It directed the respondents to clear all outstanding wages, if any, up to the date the petitioner had actually performed duties with JKCL, within three months from the date of the order. The Court made it clear that in case of default, the amount shall carry interest at the rate of 6 percent per annum from the date of filing of the petition till realisation
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