Hry govt to file special leave petition in Supreme Court against HC order

CHANDIGARH: Waking up almost two months after the Punjab and Haryana high court set aside the regularisation of contractual employees, the Haryana government on Thursday decided to file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the high court order.

Haryana advocate general (AG) Baldev Raj Mahajan said that a meeting was organised on Thursday with employees union and legal experts of the opposition parties — former AG Hawa Singh Hooda, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) representative Naresh Shekhawat and Union leaders, including those from Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, to deliberate on the issue.

“It has been decided to file an SLP (Special Leave Petition) in the Supreme Court. As decided earlier, the state government will not table a bill for regularising the services of contract employees,” Mahajan said.

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and finance minister Capt Abhimanyu had two months ago announced that the state government will file an SLP in the apex court. But it did not happen.

Asked about the delay, the advocate general said that since employees’ union wanted the government to enact a law to regularise the jobs of contract employees, the government did not file an appeal against the high court order.

The proposed SLP however too is unlikely to sustain before the apex court as the regularisation orders of the previous Congress government were in clear contradiction of Supreme Court orders, legal experts say.

ASSEMBLY SESSION POSTPONED

The assembly session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, which was scheduled to begin from August 17, was postponed indefinitely on Thursday, following the demise of Vajpayee. A notification to rescind the scheduling of the assembly session from August 17 was issued by the governor. A fresh notification would be issued to convene the assembly session again, an official said.