Nainital: The division bench of the Uttarakhand High Court has approved the termination of 228 ad-hoc employees of the Uttarakhand Assembly. Earlier, the single bench of the HC had stayed this order issued by the state Vidhan Sabha deputy secretary. The division bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice RC Khulbe upheld the termination order issued by the state Vidhan Sabha deputy secretary.
The advocate representing the Secretariat apprised that the ad-hoc appointments in the Vidhan Sabha were challenged by a public interest litigant in 2016 and Vidhan Sabha in response to that PIL had taken the action. These employees were appointed on an ad-hoc basis for the smooth functioning of the work with the condition of their services can be terminated at any monument without any clarification or notice, it was argued.
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At the same time, the advocate appearing for the petitioners argued that their termination is a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, as the employees hired between 2016 and 2021 have been dismissed by the Speaker, while similar appointments between 2000 and 2015, have been regularised.
They possessed all the requisite qualifications for regular appointments to their respective posts. The work and performance of petitioners are above board and there is no complaint regarding their conduct from any quarter, it was contended. More than 102 of the terminated ad hoc employees had filed petitions in the HC challenging their termination. Counsels for the petitioners informed the court that their services were terminated by the Assembly speaker citing public interest. However, there was neither mention of the reason for their termination in the order nor were their explanations sought.
The termination of service of any ad hoc or temporary employee is governed by the Uttaranchal Temporary Government Servants (termination of service) Regulation -2003. According to this regulation, a temporary employee can be terminated by the appointing authority on the issuance of one month's notice to the employee concerned, which was not done in the case of these employees.
