‘WEEDING OUT DEADWOOD’;HC quashes compulsorily retirement of 6 more employees
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: In yet another huge jolt to PDP-BJP Government’s much trumpeted ‘drive against deadwood’, Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Wednesday quashed the compulsorily retirement of six employees and directed the State to reinstate them with all consequential benefits within a period of one month.
With this the number of employees reinstated due to judicial intervention has risen to 8.
The State government had ordered termination/premature retirement of 63 public servants including several KAS officers and two Chief Engineers on 2nd July 2015, little over four months after the PDP-BJP government was sworn in with Mufti Mohammed Sayeed as Chief Minister.
While hearing six petitions, out of 29 listed, Justice Alok Aradhe quashed the government orders for premature retirement of Chief Engineer Prem Nath, Assistant Executive Engineer Javed Iqbal, Superintendent Medical Hospital, Kathua Dr. Manoj Bhagat, the then CEO Jammu Tarsem Lal, Patwari Padam Dev Sharma and Village Level Worker Parshotam Kumar Sharma.
This year on 28th June, Justice Mohammedd Yaqoob Mir of J&K High Court had quashed the order of compulsory retirement of Dr Mohammad Riyaz, former General Manager, J&K Medical Supplies Corporation which was followed by the quashment of compulsory retirement of Satish Khajuria, Chief Khilafwarzi Officer, Jammu Municipal Corporation by Justice B S Wali of J&K High Court on 16th July.
Today, after hearing Senior Additional Advocate General (AAG) Seema Shekhar appearing for the State and a battery of lawyers, appearing for the petitioners, the Court observed that in the case of Dinesh Chander Sangma (quoted by Sr AAG), the Supreme Court was dealing with the case where the employee had sought voluntary retirement and the government refused to accept the application. But in the aforesaid case, the observations with regard to Doctrine of Pleasure as contained in Article 310 of the Constitution of India were made, which do not apply to the factual situation of the case.
Similarly, the Court further observed that the decision relied upon by Senior AAG, in the case of Posts and Telegraphs Board and others has no application to the factual situation in the aforesaid case, as the conclusion to compulsorily retirement of employee in public interest was based on two adverse Annual Performance Reports (APRs) but in the instant case, the APRs have not been taken into consideration. Therefore, the aforesaid decision is also of no assistance.
Later, the Court observed that the decision in the case of Jugal Chander Saikia also doesn’t apply to the aforesaid case, as the decision to compulsorily retirement of employee was taken on the recommendations of Screening Committee which took into account the entire records including the report of one member committee constituted to enquire into a scandal, in which the appellant in the aforesaid case was involved. Therefore, the decision doesn’t apply to the obtaining factual matrix of instant case.
With these observations, Justice Alok Aradhe allowed the petitions and quashed the government order with the direction to the state government to reinstate the petitioners in service with all consequential benefits within one month from today.
