Setting aside a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to regularise the employment of seven daily wage chowkidars (security guards), who have been serving the civic body for the past 25-27 years. The CAT, in its order dated October 1, 2018, had held that the petitioners were “unable to bring out whether any of their juniors have been regularised, ignoring their (petitioners’) turn”, and had thus ruled that they were not entitled to regularisation. Initially appointed as “leave substitute” chowkidars, the petitioners were subsequently appointed as daily wagers against sanctioned posts. The petitioners contended that other chowkidars, who had also been initially appointed as leave substitutes and had been taken on as daily wagers on the same day as them, were being regularised. The seven petitioners were appointed as leave substitutes between 1999 and 2001; all seven were then appointed as daily wagers on March 7, 2007. It was the MCD’s case that the petitioners were converted from leave substitutes to daily wage chowkidars after April 10, 2006, and that they, therefore, do not make the cut-off date for regularisation. Slamming the MCD for “idlespeak”, the bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and Amit Sharma noted that the Tribunal, “quite obviously, has not considered the matter in all its seriousness”. “It can hardly be an answer to the petitioners’ claims for regularisation that no one engaged after them had been regularised,” said the court. Ruling in favour of the daily wagers, the bench reasoned, “. we find that the entitlement of the petitioners to regularisation cannot be disputed, and the respondents themselves were considering them for regularisation. They had been appointed to sanctioned posts, and vacancies are available. They have continued, from the time of their appointment as leave substitutes, for 25 to 27 years, and even after their conversion to daily wage employees, for over 18 years as on date. There is no complaint about their work. Their job is perennial, as they are working as chowkidars, and the very fact of their having served the MCD for so long is a testimony to their continuous requirement.” Holding that the petitioners are entitled to regularisation on the posts they hold, the court also ruled that they would be entitled to all consequential benefits. The court has ordered compliance within four weeks.
