Mumbai: Bombay High Court has directed Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation to regularise 479 contractual employees, holding that they cannot be subjected to a written examination for regularisation.“We hope that, in future, the VVCMC as well as the state govt would take appropriate steps to ensure that ad-hocism in public employment is consigned to history…,” said Justices Girish Kulkarni and Aarti Sathe in Friday’s judgement. They quashed and set aside the urban development department’s Jan 21 letter directing an examination for contractual employees and VVCMC’s consequent Jan 28 communication. They directed VVCMC to issue regularisation orders within two weeks.Petitions were filed by doctors, paramedical and administrative staff who served in VVCMC’s hospitals, clinics and primary health centres for 8-10 years and even during the Covid-19 pandemic. They were selected through “walk-in interview” advertisements but appointed for six months with a one-day “technical break” just to show they were not allowed to continue as regular employees.VVCMC said they have no vested right to seek regularisation. The petitioners’ advocate, Abhijeet Desai, said the state govt had approved regularisation in other corporations and even of 33 similarly placed VVCMC employees. The judges agreed with Desai “that a different yardstick cannot be applied to the petitioners… who have continuously discharged perennial and indispensable public health duties.” The continuous appointment on contractual posts and discharging services “for unduly long period have created a legitimate expectation of the petitioners being absorbed.”The judges noted that these employees “were engaged in their youth” and “cannot be left to fend for themselves particularly when employment opportunities may no longer be available due to age constraints.” They could not have been left in a state of ad hocism, that too when perennial work is available. “We find that what has infected the system is the cultivation of such ad hocism, rather than creation and maintenance of a robust and permanent cadre of employees,” the judges said. Further, “such ad hocism is counterproductive” to smooth discharge of vital functions for the public welfare.The judges said the petitioners were appointed through a transparent selection process and “their appointments are not illegal or backdoor appointments.” VVCMC would not be justified in continuing them in contractual posts. It was also not appropriate for the state govt and VVCMC “to foist upon the petitioners” a condition to undergo written examination. “The respondents’ refusal to regularise the petitioners, despite their long and uninterrupted service…is therefore arbitrary and illegal,” they concluded.
