Supreme Court: In the PIL relating to lack of basic amenities in the Bandipora District Court affecting the proper functioning of Courts where the issue of regularization of employement by the High Court was in question the Court laid down the following principles:
- Article 235 enables the High Court to exercise complete administrative control over the district judiciary which extends to all functionaries attached to those courts, including ministerial staff and employees on the establishment.
- Employment in the High Courts or in the courts subordinate to them constitutes public employment.
- The date on which the vacancies are likely to occur are foreseeable with a reasonable amount of clarity and precision.
- While the High Court is an autonomous constitutional authority whose status cannot be undermined, it is equally necessary for it to strictly comply with the rules framed in making recruitments.
Explaining the concept of regularization, the Court said that it is not a source of recruitment nor is it intended to confer permanency upon appointments which have been made without following the due process envisaged by Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. Essentially a scheme for regularisation, in order to be held to be legally valid, must be one which is aimed at validating certain irregular appointments which may have come to be made in genuine and legitimate administrative exigencies. In all such cases it may be left open to Courts to lift the veil to enquire whether the Scheme is aimed at achieving the above objective and is a genuine attempt at validating irregular appointments. The State and its instrumentalities cannot be permitted to use this window to validate illegal appointments. The second rider which must necessarily be placed is that the principle as formulated above is not meant to create or invest in a temporary or ad hoc Employee the right to seek a writ commanding the State to frame a scheme for regularisation.
The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir had, by order dated 01.12.2015, had observed that over a considerable period of time the state government had not created the required number of posts for the state judiciary as a result of which work has been hampered. According to the High Court, appointment of daily rated workers was necessitated to ensure that judicial work does not suffer. The High Court opined that these workers have been rendering work which should have been assigned to persons appointed on a regular basis against sanctioned posts.
The bench of T.S. Thakur, CJ and Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud and L. Nageswara Rao, JJ, noticing that the direction for regularization was issued by the High Court without considering the relevant constitutional and legal principles, said that it is unfortunate that the state government has allowed the requirements of the state judiciary to be neglected over such a long period of time. The need to facilitate the proper functioning of the High Court and the district judiciary is a constitutional necessity which imposes a non-negotiable obligation on the state government to create an adequate number of posts and to provide sufficient infrastructure. The state government is to blame for the unfortunate situation which has resulted in a large number of persons being recruited on a daily wage basis. [State of Jammu & Kashmir v. District Bar Association, Bandipora, 2016 SCC OnLine SC 1435, decided on 08.12.2016]