- (1.) This order will dispose of Civil Writ Petitions Nos. 3471, 4197, 4277, 4586, 4620, 4766, 4990, 5017, 5041, 5156. 5173, 5258, 5273, 5286, 5289., 5339, 5346, 5356, 5365, 5368, 5379, 5385,. 5391, 5396. 5399, 5415, 5426, 5434, 5438, 5461, 5471, 5490, 5491, 5514, 5517, 5521, 5530, 5536, 5551, 5553, 5558, 5569, 5581, 5582, 5599, 5610, 5613, 5678, 5689. 5702, 5705, 5715. 5736, 5738, 5750, 5763. 5798, 5803, 5836. 5841, 5868, 5927, 6117, 6137, 6157, 6173. 6174, 6273. 6285, 6304, 6342, 6395, 6468, 6498, 6540, 6586, 6609, 6635, 6651, 6657, 6669, 6684, 6724, 6725, and 6761 of 1975, as a common question of law is involved in all these cases.
(2.) The petitioners in Civil Writ Petition No. 5017 of 1975, were appointed as Traders on ad hoc basis and were working as such in January, 1973, when the Punjab Government decided to regularise the appointments of the employees recruited on ad hoc basis in all the Departments. The said decision of the State Government is reflected in the letter of the Chief Secretary to Government, PunJab, dated January 29, 1973, a copy of which is Annexure 'P-2' with this writ petition, the said decision of the Government, which was conveyed by the Chief Secretary to Government, Punjab, to all the Heads of Departments, vide the above referred to letter, is as follows: "Subject: Regularisation of the appointments of the employees recruited on ad hoc basis. Sir, I am directed to address you on the subject noted above and to say that a large number of employees had to be appointed on ad hoc basis against posts not falling within the purview of the selection of candidates through the Departmental Selection Committees or the Subordinate Services Selection Board, as the case may be. Such employees have been continuing the service on ad hoc basis for a considerable period. Government have decided that measures as noted below, be adopted to regularise the appointment of such employees. (1) The cases of all the ad hoc employees of the category referred to above who completed a minimum of one year's service on the Ist January 1973 will be screened by the Departmental Selection Committee of the respective Departments who will condone notional break/breaks in service of such employees. Those employees whose services have been terminated between the period from 1-1-1973 to the issue of these instructions, but who had completed a minimum of one year's service on 1-1-1973, should also be considered for regularisation if they have not been already selected for regular appointment against some other posts. (2) The appointments of the ad hoc employees whose work and conduct is found satisfactory will be regularised if they satisfy the following conditions: (a) They fulfil academic qualifications including experience prescribed for the job/post against which they were appointed on ad hoc basis including the condition of age at the time of their first appointment as such. (b) Their names had been recommended for such appointment by the Employment Exchange or their applications had been received in response to the advertisement made for filling of such post or their appointments were made on compassionate grounds in specific cases on account of their being dependants of deceased Government employees. (3) While calculating the period of service in terms of item (1) above, the following types of breaks in service rendered on ad hoc basis may be ignored: (i) Whether the break was of a notional nature falling between the ad hoc appointments in some category of posts in the same department. (ii) Where the break was on account of some administrative conditions, such as, the summer vacations, during which the service of teachers are terminated, so as to avoid the liability of payment for the said period. In other words the breaks in ad hoc services would not be ignored in cases where (i) The employee concerned left service of his own volition either to join some other department or for some other reasons; or (ii) The ad hoc appointment was against a post/vacancy for which no regular recruitment was intended/required to be made e.g., leave arrangements or filling of other short term vacancies. 2. The seniority of the ad hoc employees whose employments are regularised in terms of the above policy shall be determined in the following manner: (a) After the approval by the Departmental Committee the regularisation of their appointment shall date back to 1-1-1973 from which date their seniority shall be determined vis-a-vis candidates appointed on regular basis after selection through the prescribed agencies. (b) The Service rendered on ad hoc basis shall not be taken into account for purposes of seniority except to determine inter se seniority among the ad hoc employees themselves whose services are regularised, with effect from 1-1-1973. 3. If any point of doubt arises to deal with a particular case not covered by the above instructions, the matter should be referred to Service Department for clarification with full facts of the case and with clear recommendation of the Administrative Secretary concerned. 4. In order to alleviate any further hardship to the ad hoc employees, the process of regularisation of their appointments be completed within a month of their intimation to the Service Department. 5. Receipt of this letter may be acknowledged."
(3.) The petitioners in all the other writ petitions, which are being disposed of by this order, are similarly ad hoc employees of various departments under the Punjab Government and admittedly the case of none of them is covered by the above referred to policy decision so that in other words none of them had completed a minimum of one year's service on January 1, 1973. However, the petitioners are alleged to have completed the service of one year after January, 1973, and the respective dates of their completion of the period of one year's service after the said date, have been diversely mentioned in the various writ petitions referred to above. The detailed facts as contained in all these above referred to writ petitions, need not be given because the only point argued before us by all the learned counsel for the petitioners, is that the State Government while taking the policy decision referred to above, arbitrarily fixed January 1,1973, as the date before which the ad hoc employees should have completed a minimum of one year's service. It is conceded by the learned counsel for the petitioners that if this contention of the petitioners fails, no other point will arise for determination and if this contention succeeds and the Court comes to the conclusion that 1st January, 1973, has been arbitrarily fixed that part of the decision which fixes this date as the last date for completion of one year's service as ad hoc employees has to be quashed from the circular and the services of the petitioners have to be ordered to be regularised and the State Govt. may then take a fresh decision regarding the regularisation of the services of the ad hoc employees. In this view of the matter, we are not required to give the detailed facts of each writ petition.;