R.S.Mongia, J. - (1.) THE Government of Haryana framed a scheme called 'Reproductive Child Health Scheme' in short 'RCH' and initially and scheme was introduced in districts Faridabad, Panchkula and Bhiwani. The scheme is run by a society known as Reproductive Child Health Society. As per the averments made in the writ petition, the petitioners possesses the qualification for appointment as Accountant/Clerk/Steno/typist/Staff Nurses/Lab. Technician/Multi Purpose Health Worker (Female)/A.N.M. Driver. In response to advertisement issued from time to time, petitioners were appointed on different posts mentioned above on purely contractual basis. The appointment letters issued by the Chairman of the Reproductive Child Health Society, Bhiwani, to petitioner Anil Sharma as Lab. Technician dated April 27, 1999, has been appended as Annexure P -6 to the writ petition. Its terms of appointment (relevant extract) may be noticed : - "Sub : - Appointed for the post of L.T. Lab. Technician on contract basis. On the recommendation of R.C.H. Selection Committee you are hereby offered contract appointment for the post of Lab. Technician C.H.C. Band Kala under R.C.H. Scheme in the fixed pay Rs. 5085/ - p.m. only sanctioned by Distt. R.C.H. Society on contract basis. Your appointment is purely on contract basis upto 31 -3 -2000. Your services will be terminated without assigning any reason except in the case of removal for the misconduct for character and incident being reported to be unsatisfactory in which case your services will be terminated without any notice and similarly if you wish to resign the post you may do so by submitting 24 hours notice."
(2.) SIMILAR appointment letters were issued to the other petitioners. A termination letter issued to one of the petitioners, Santosh Kumari, dated May, 4, 2000, copy Annexure P -10, when translated into English reads as under : - "Subject : Regarding relieving from duties. On the above cited subject you were appointed as Staff Nurse in R.C.H. upto 31 -3 -2000 and afterwards approval has not been received for your continuation in service. Therefore you deem yourself to be relieved w.e.f. 31 -3 -2000 and you handover your charge to the A.N.M./any employee." This writ petition has been filed primarily with a prayer that services of the petitioners, though on contract, basis, cannot be terminated till regular appointments are made and further one contractual appointee cannot be replaced by another contractual appointee. In this regard, an advertisement dated May 21, 2000 issued by the Reproductive Child Health Society, Bhiwani, has been appended as Annexure P11, which invites applications for various posts for appointment on contractual basis on fixed salaries upto March 31, 2000.
(3.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioners argued that the petitioners have been selected and appointed on contractual basis after due selection and, therefore, their services cannot be terminated till regular appointments are made and in any case the contractual appointment should be extended and the petitioners cannot be replaced by other contractual appointees. In support of the contention, learned counsel for the petitioners has cited Division Bench judgments of this Court reported as Polu Ram v. State of Haryana, 1998 (4) RSJ 152; Shamsher Singh v. State of Haryana, 1998 (4) RSJ 708, and two judgments of the Apex Court reported as State of Haryana v. Piara Singh and State of Himachal Pradesh v. Suresh Kumar Verma : AIR 1996 SC 1565 : 1996 Lab IC 1265). Before dealing with the (authorities cited by the learned counsel for the petitioners, we may observe here that the question as posed in the present writ petition, while culling out the prayers of the petitioners above, has been squarely answered by a Full Bench of this Court in S. K. Verma v. State of Punjab, (1979) 2 SLR 164 :, (1979 Lab IC 575) and a Division Bench judgment of this Court reported in as Harjot Kamal Singh v. State of Punjab, 1997 (1) RSJ 95. In S. K. Verma's case (supra), the questions that arose for consideration were whether the services of an ad hoc employee could be terminated in accordance with the terms of appointment and whether the ad hoc appointees could be replaced by other ad hoc appointees ? The term of appointment of the petitioners in S. K. Verma's case, (1979 Lab IC 575) (supra) was as follows : "The appointment is against a temporary post, the sanction of which is granted from time to time. If the post is abolished then your appointment is liable to be terminated as you are being appointed on temporary basis. It is, therefore, made clear that your services can be terminated at any time without giving any notice.";