Kerala High Court: A Division Bench of V. Chitambaresh and Ashok Menon, JJ. set aside the order of Kerala Administrative Tribunal (KAT) and allowed a petition for regularization of services of certain workers who had been in the employment of respondent for decades uninterruptedly without any break.
The petitioners who were working as pump operators at Kerala Raj Bhavan demanded regularization of service. The Tribunal dismissed their claim on the technical ground that “they are daily wage employees working in the unsanctioned posts”.
The Court relied on the decision of Nihal Singh v. State of Punjab, (2013) 14 SCC 65 wherein the defense of the State that there were no sanctioned posts to absorb the appellants, was rejected because they were utilizing the services of a large number of people like the appellants for decades.
The Court recognized that there is a need for the sanctioned posts of Pump Operator to ensure uninterrupted water supply to the Kerala Raj Bhavan. Since the petitioners had worked for decades uninterruptedly without any break, hence they were entitled to regularization of their services in light of the special facts and circumstances.[Sudarsanan K. v. State of Kerala, 2019 SCC OnLine Ker 1736, decided on 04-06-2019]
