Chandigarh: Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the Punjab govt to regularise the services of 46 employees working in the office of Tarn Taran deputy commissioner (DC) with effect from Dec 24 and grant them pay scale and benefits available to similarly placed regular employees.The HC directed that the employees be paid the benefits with 6% annual interest from Dec 24 until realisation. The bench also directed that arrears arising from regularisation would carry 9% annual interest from the date they became due until realisation, with the benefit restricted to 36 months preceding the filing of the writ petition on July 22, 2021.Justice Sandeep Moudgil recently passed the order on applications filed by Nishan Singh and others seeking implementation of an order passed by the DC on Aug 6, 2021.The petitioners had been working with the state govt since 2006 through outsourcing and subsequently on contractual basis. They approached the HC seeking regularisation under the Punjab Ad Hoc, Contractual, Daily Wage, Temporary, Work-charge and Outsourced Employees’ Welfare Act, 2016, and pay parity with regular employees.On July 26, 2021, HC directed the DC to decide the representation through a speaking order. The DC accepted their claim on Aug 6, 2021, recording that they had worked for years, fulfilled the conditions for regular appointment and performed duties similar to those of regular employees. The matter was forwarded to the financial commissioner (revenue).The state govt, however, maintained that the DC order was only a recommendation. In its subsequent reply, the govt contended that the employees were outsourced on Dec 24, 2016, and therefore not eligible for regularisation under Section 3(1) of the 2016 Act. It further referred to the proposed Punjab Protection and Regularisation of Contractual Employees Bill, 2021.The HC rejected the state’s objections, observing that the employees’ claim had already been considered pursuant to its directions and accepted by the DC.The bench noted that on Aug 11, 2026, the advocate general, Punjab, accompanied by the financial commissioner (revenue), had informed it that the petitioners were eligible and entitled to regularisation and the benefit of “equal pay for equal work”, and assured that necessary orders would be issued within two days.“The state cannot be permitted to take one stand before the court through the learned advocate general and the financial commissioner and thereafter adopt a contrary position through an affidavit filed in the same proceedings,” the bench observed.It further held that the proposed legislation could not be relied upon to withhold consequential action as the Bill had not received the governor’s assent.Directing the respondents to give effect to the Aug 6, 2021, speaking order and the assurance furnished before it on Aug 11, 2026, the HC ordered regularisation of the petitioners’ services from the date the 2016 Act came into force, noting that they had completed three years of service and were already on the rolls of the state exchequer.
