Almost seventy five contractual employees working in group B and C posts such as clerk, data entry operators, electricians and even junior engineers who were hired in 2006 and 2010 are seeking regularisation of their services.

Now the Municipal Corporation has found that 50% of these vacancies as ‘back-door’ entries as:

  • They were hired without advertisement.
  • No check of educational credentials.
  • No proper recruitment process was followed.
  • Approval of the commissioner of Municipal Corporation was not sought.
  • Few of them were hired on temporary basis.
Regularisation of Services in Chandigarh MC case at CAT Tribunal
Regularisation of Services in Chandigarh MC case at CAT Tribunal

Previously, employment in Chandigarh Municipal Corporation was regularised in 2006 for employees who joined in 1996, for which almost 10 years of work experience was preferred. The Union Territory administration has now asked to fill all vacant posts in the Municipal Corporation through direct recruitment where the contractual employees may be asked to leave.

The contractual employees are seeking parity with the Punjab government who introduced one-time regularisation policy in 2011, but the Union Territory has not drafted any such policy so far for the contract based employees.

The issue of seniority has earlier also been dealt with by the honorable Supreme Court of India in the following judgments:

  1. Malathi Das
  2. Prem Ram
  3. Uma Devi (2006)- Here services were regularised for those who have worked for more than ten years.
  4. Narendra Kumar Tiwari vs. State of Jharkhand
  5. State of Karnataka vs. ML Kesari
  6. Union of India & others vs. CAT & others- in civil appeal no. 175-176 of 2019 (SLP (C) no. 37798-37799 of 2013) decided on 08.01.2019 by Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Hemant Gupta

This one time exercise should consider all daily-wages/ad hoc/casual employees who had put in ten years of continuous service as on 10.04.2006 without availing the protection of any interim orders of courts or tribunals. All the employees entitled to be considered in terms of para 53 of the judgment in the case of Uma Devi are so to be considered.

The agenda of regularising the staff has been taken up in the house by the former mayor who supports it. Now the Municipal Corporation officials are to table the details when the agenda comes in the next house meeting.

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