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Regularisation of Part time teachers

Can part-time lecturers be regularized? Read Supreme Court's Answer

December 5, 2017

The facts of the case are on 12th January, 1988 an advertisement was issued by the College for appointment to the post of Lecturers. It was stated in the advertisement that the appointment would be on an ad hoc basis and that the application for appointment should be received by the College on or before 31st January, 1988.

 

There is no dispute that the respondents did not apply in terms of the advertisement dated 12th January, 1988. However, much later, each of them submitted a letter on different dates between August 1988 and December 1989 to the effect that they had come to know that a post of a part-time Lecturer is lying vacant in the College and as such they may be considered for appointment against the part-time post. The College considered and accepted the application sent by the respondents and they were appointed to the post of part-time Lecturer for a fixed period of three months on a fixed salary. They continued as such till the end of April 1990.


After the period of appointment was over, the respondents filed Writ Petition in the Allahabad High Court for a declaration that they are ad hoc Lecturers and that they should be paid appropriate salary as ad hoc Lecturers. But the college submitted before the court that the respondents had not been appointed against any advertisement, that they were only part-time Lecturers and that they had not been working from May 1990 onwards.


The writ petition was disposed of by the High Court by a judgment and order dated 21st August, 1995. The High Court expressed the view that the respondents were entitled to the pay scale as applicable to the ad hoc appointees and not to part-time Lecturers.


The High Court also adverted to the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Higher Education Services Commission Act, 1980 (for short the Act) and directed the Directorate of Higher Education to enquire into the payment of salary to the respondents as ad hoc Lecturers and to take steps for payment of outstanding salary to them. The High Court noted the view of the College that the respondents were not functioning since May 1990 and also that this was disputed by the respondents. Finally, the direction given to the Directorate of Higher Education was to dispose of the entire matter within a period of two months in the light of the submissions made.


In compliance with the order passed by the High Court, the Director in the Directorate of Higher Education passed a detailed order on 6th August, 1996. It was held that the respondents had not applied in terms of the advertisement dated 12th January, 1988. It was also held that the respondents had been appointed as part-time Lecturers only and there was no provision in the Act to regularise the services of part-time Lecturers. It was also held that there was nothing on record to suggest that the respondents had put in any work with the College from May 1990 onwards or that their appointment was extended beyond April 1990.


Feeling aggrieved by the order passed by the Director on 6th August, 1996, the respondents filed Writ Petition No. 27057 of 1996 challenging the said order. During the pendency of this writ petition, the Special Secretary, Government of Uttar Pradesh passed an order on 8th September, 1997 to the effect that the respondents should be considered to have been appointed as ad hoc Lecturers; that they should be considered to have been continuously working after April 1990 and finally their regularization should be considered. It was added that the payment of salary to these respondents should be made by the College from their own resources.


Feeling aggrieved by the order dated 8th September, 1997 the College filed Writ Petition No. 33357 of 1997. Both these writ petitions, that is Writ Petition No. 27057 of 1996 and Writ Petition No. 33357 of 1997 came to be heard and disposed of by the High Court by a judgment and order dated 12th November, 1998. The writ petition filed by the respondents was allowed while the writ petition filed by the College was dismissed by the High Court.


Being aggrieved, the College preferred two petitions for special leave to appeal in this Court which were admitted for final hearing and numbered as Civil Appeal Nos. 7224-7225 of 1999. The Civil Appeals filed by the College were disposed of by Supreme Court by an order dated 16th April, 2003. It was held that the order dated 8th September, 1997 issued by the Special Secretary could not be sustained and the High Court was in error in upholding that order. Accordingly, it was held that Writ Petition No. 33357 of 1997 filed by the College challenging the order dated 8th September, 1997 deserves to be allowed. It was also held that insofar as Writ Petition No. 27057 of 1996 is concerned (wherein the order dated 6th August, 1996 was challenged by the respondents) it deserved to be heard afresh by the High Court and accordingly the said writ petition was remanded to the High Court for a fresh hearing in accordance with law. Both the Civil Appeals were disposed of on the above basis.


Strangely enough while both the Civil Appeals were pending in this Court, the Secretary, U.P. Government passed an order dated 26th February, 2001 once again regularising the services of the respondents and fixing their pay. This order was challenged by the College by filing Writ Petition No. 12748 of 2004. By the impugned judgment and order dated 1st November, 2004 the High Court remanded the matter relating to the regularization of the respondents to the Director of Education for passing a speaking order after considering the provisions of Section 31- C of the Act.


The court observed that:

"A bare perusal of these provisions makes it quite clear that they deal with the procedure of ad hoc selection and regularization of those selected on an ad hoc basis. These provisions have absolutely no application to the appointment of part-time Lecturers or their regularization. In fact the statute does not at all provide for regularization of part-time Lecturers."

"There is also nothing on the record to indicate that the respondents had worked beyond 30th April, 1990. It was only their submission that they had worked beyond April 1990 but nothing was placed on record to even give a suggestion that the respondents had worked beyond April 1990."

"Under these circumstances, the question of regularization of the respondents including the correctness of the order passed by the Secretary, U. P. Government on 26th February, 2001 simply did not arise."

"The respondents had absolutely no right in their favour and the only option available to the High Court was to have dismissed the writ petition filed by the respondents and to have allowed the writ petition filed by the College and set aside the order dated 26th February, 2001 regularising the services of the respondents."

"On the facts placed before us, we find that they were not correctly appreciated by the High Court. Consequently, we dispose of these appeals by holding that the respondents were appointed only on a part-time basis as Lecturers and not on an ad hoc basis; the respondents did not work in the College beyond April 1990; the respondents had no right to be regularised as Lecturers in the College and there is no merit in the claim made by the respondents."
 

 

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