Mohd. Yamin, J. - (1.) The petitioners allege that they are Data Entry Operators and were inducted by the Jaipur Development Authority (hereinafter, referred as the JDA) through contractor as such against regular substantive posts. No right has been conferred to the JDA to dispense with the services of the petitioners at any point of time but they have come to know from the reliable sources that their services are going to be dispensed with in spite of the fact that they have been holding the posts for more than two years only for the reason that they are being treated as employees of the contractor. As per the averments in the petition, the JDA is a statutory body created under the Jaipur Development Authority Act, 1982 and has framed Regulations for employment of its staff but it resorted to a novel method of employing persons on regular posts which are required to be filled up as per the provisions contained in the Regulations but filled through the Co-operative Societies. Petitioners were appointed initially through Rajasthan Agency for Computer Services and on one fine morning, their services were shown on records to be hired on 1.4.1989 through Jaipur Ex-servicemen Welfare Co-operative Society who is respondent No. 2. Each one of them is being paid Rs. 100/- per day. Each of them is a Graduate of 1991 and Post-Graduate of 1995 from the University of Rajasthan and further qualified for Computer Programming from Capital Computers, Jaipur.
(2.) The post of Data Entry Operator has been included in the Schedule appended to the Regulations of 1984 incorporated vide Gazette Notification dated 14.5.1999 and the petitioners fulfilled the qualification laid down for the post of Data Entry Operator. They were appointed through the Rajasthan Agency for Computer Services which is a society registered under the Rajasthan Societies Registration Act, 1958 which is respondent No. 3 in this writ petition. Both of them are qualified for the post of Data Entry Operator in the scale of Rs. 4000-6000.
(3.) A Computer Cell was established in the JDA in the year 1988 and the post of System Analyst, Programmer, and Data Entry Operators were created in the regular pay scale. It may be stated that at the relevant point of time when petitioners were inducted, there were no Rules for recruitment laid down so far as the post of Data Entry Operator is concerned but an amendment was made by the JDA vide Notification dated 14.5.1999 by which eligibility conditions have been laid down and the petitioners fulfilled those conditions. The Rajasthan Agency for Computer Services is 'State' within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution and amenable under writ jurisdiction. In all 5 persons are working as Data Entry Operator in the computer cell and all were initially engaged by the JDA through respondent No. 3 and later on without taking their consent, their services were hired through respondent No. 2. The JDA remains their principal employer. It is not known as to why respondent No. 2 was changed but there was no relationship between petitioners and respondent No. 2. The work of Data Entry Operator is of perennial in nature for which the JDA would be competent to make appointment. The appointments made by the JDA through contractor is against Section 10 of the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970. The petitioners are workmen Under section 2(S) of the Industrial Disputes Act as amended by Rajasthan Act No. 34158 which reads as under : "Workman" means any person employed in any industry by an employer or by a contractor in relation to the execution of his contract with such employer to do any manual, unskilled, skilled, technical, operational clerical or supervisory work for hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be expressed or implied, and for the purposes of any proceeding under this Act in relation to any industrial dispute, includes any such person who has been dismissed, discharged or retrenched in connection with or as a consequence of that dispute, or whose dismissal, discharge or retrenchment has led to that dispute, but does not include any such person.";