The service of temporary government employees or those working in any institution with "deep and pervasive state control" cannot be regularised, the Kerala High Court has ruled. A division bench justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Gopinath P gave the verdict on the basis of an earlier judgement of the Supreme Court in the state of Karnataka and others versus Uma Devi and others case.
The bench gave the ruling in an appeal challenging a single bench order rejecting a plea of two employees of the Institute of Human Resources Development (IHRD) under the state government seeking regularisation of their services.
Referring to the apex court verdict, the bench said no regularisation can be granted to any temporary employee of the government or those employed in its departments, statutory bodies including Local Self-Government Institutions, government companies, statutory corporations or of any institution like the IHRD where there is "deep and pervasive state control".
The bench said such privileges cannot be granted to the employees of even special purpose vehicles formed for implementing specific projects or the institutions of public importance and related to governmental functions.
Noting that the law laid down by the Supreme Court is the law of the land, the court, in its February 22 order, said any deviation from it is to be deprecated.
"When a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has declared that regularisation should be permitted only as a one-time measure subject to the conditions mentioned in paragraph 53 of the judgment in the secretary, state of Karnataka and others Vs Uma Devi and others (supra), we do not see how any authority can violate those directions and issue orders of regularisation, contrary to the principles laid down in that judgment," it said.
It said it has noticed that orders are being issued contrary to the law declared by the Supreme Court in that judgment.
"We deem it appropriate to suo-motu implead the Chief Secretary of the Kerala government" as an additional third respondent to the writ appeal, the court added.
It directed the High Court's registry to carry out necessary amendments to the cause title and forward a certified copy of this judgment to the state chief secretary who shall upon its receipt take note of the fact that no regularisation can be granted to any temporary employee.
Kerala had recently witnessed major protests by various rank holders of Kerala Public Service Commission, asking to extend their rank lists and to stop regularisation of temporary employees. However the Chief Minister had reacted earlier saying that temporary employees are regularised only in posts which are not filled by PSC.
(With inputs from PTI)