Contractual services depend on terms of contract: HC
Court says contractual employees have no right to post
PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court has held that an employee whose services are entirely contractual has no right to the post, and his service depends on the terms of the contract.
Dismissing a writ petition filed by one Mahesh Kumar, a Safai Karamchari appointed on a contract basis, Justice JJ Munir observed, “In this case, the petitioner is not a temporary employee. He is an employee whose services are entirely contractual. Once that is the case, even if he has been selected through some kind of mechanism under a Government Order and appointed on contract, he has no right to the post. There is no lien. In fact, the Uttar Pradesh Government Servant Conduct Rules, 1956 would not apply to him because he is not an employee of the Nagar Palika, governed by those statutes or statutory rules. His terms of service are governed by the contract alone.”
“The petitioner’s rights are governed exclusively by a contract that does not have any statutory flavour. It is a purely contractual appointment accepted by the petitioner without the rules and without a lien on any post. The issue of whether the termination is in accordance with the contract or contrary to it, in the absence of a violation of any statute or statutory rules, or at least a statutory contract, is not fit to be determined by this court in the exercise of our writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution,” he said.
The petitioner was appointed as a Safai Karamchari, engaged on a contract by the Nagar Palika Parishad, Modi Nagar, Ghaziabad. He has challenged the order dated April 29, 2023, passed by the executive officer, Nagar Palika Parishad, Modi Nagar, Ghaziabad, by which his contract was terminated, and consequently, his service was terminated.
However, while dismissing the writ petition, the court, in its decision dated March 11, said that if the petitioner believed that his services had been terminated in violation of the contract between him and the Nagar Palika, or if the Nagar Palika had engaged in any unfair labour practices in terminating the petitioner’s services, it would be open to the petitioner to raise an industrial dispute under the Uttar Pradesh Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. No relief, however, could be provided to the petitioner in the present writ petition.