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TMI Blog2006 (12) TMI 519X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rule and constitutional provisions. Any appointment, thus, made without following the procedure would be ultra vires. This Court, recently in Indian Drugs Pharmaceuticals Ltd. v. Workman, Indian Drugs Pharmaceuticals Ltd.[ 2006 (11) TMI 655 - SUPREME COURT] , opined that rules of recruitment cannot be relaxed and the Courts/Tribunals cannot direct regularization of temporary appointees de hors the rules, nor can it direct continuation of service of a temporary employee (whether called a casual, ad hoc or daily rate employee) or payment of regular salaries to them. It was faintly suggested that as the respondents are qualified to hold the posts and they had been continuously working for a long time, this Court may not interfere with the impugned judgment. On the face of a catena of decisions of this Court, we cannot accept the said submission. An endeavor was made also to submit that the respondents were employed on daily rated basis and their services were transferred to the Corporation. No such case was made out and in any event, as and when the respondents themselves agreed to be appointed on a contractual basis by the appellant-Board, at this juncture they cannot b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eme of State of Punjab cannot be said to be applicable to the employees of the appellant-board as would appear from a copy of a letter dated 14.10.2002 issued by the Additional Director, Local Government of Punjab, Chandigarh, which is in the following terms - OFFICE OF THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL, HOSHIARPUR Receipt No. 570 dated 22.10.2002 To The Executive Officer, Municipal Council, Hoshiarpur. Memo NO. AS2-DSS(5-A)2002/23660 Dated 14.10.2002 Subject : To appoint employees working under URP scheme on the regular basis. With reference to your Memo No. 530 dated 7.6.2001 on the subject cited above. You are hereby informed that in the absence of instructions to regularize the services of those employees who are working on contract basis, the Director, Local Govt. Punjab after thoughtful consideration, has filed the case. Sd/- Additional Director Learned Counsel for the respondents, on the other hand, supported the impugned judgment. 7. Before we proceed to consider the rival contentions of the parties, we would notice the purported scheme of regularization issued by the State of Punjab. We may also notice that the sai ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nder the statute any direction issued by the State shall be binding on it. The State may have some control with regard to recruitment of employees of local authorities, but such control must be exercised by the State strictly in terms of the provisions of the Act. The statutory bodies are bound to apply the rules of recruitment laid down under statutory rules. They being 'States' within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India, are bound to implement the constitutional scheme of equality. Neither the statutory bodies can refuse to fulfil such constitutional duty, nor the State can issue any direction contrary to or inconsistent with the constitutional principles adumbrated under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.The purported directions of the State were otherwise bad in law in so far as thereby the statutory rules were sought to be superseded. A circular letter furthermore is not a statutory instrument. It was not even issued by the State in exercise of the power under Article 162 of the Constitution of India. Even a scheme issued under Article 162 of the Constitution of India, would not prevail over statutory rules. 9. The High Court, unf ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... decision, however, was not followed by the High Court. 11. Once it is held that the terms and conditions of service including the recruitment of employees were to be governed either by the statutory rules or rules framed under the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution of India, it must necessarily be held that any policy decision adopted by the State in exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 162 of the Constitution of India would be illegal and without jurisdiction. In A. Umarani v. Registrar, Cooperative Societies and Ors. [(2004) 7 SCC 112], a Three Judge Bench of this Court has opined: No regularization is, thus, permissible in exercise of the statutory power conferred under Article 162 of the Constitution if the appointments have been made in contravention of the statutory rules. It was further held: It is trite that appointments cannot be made on political considerations and in violation of the government directions for reduction of establishment expenditure or a prohibition on the filling up of vacant posts or creating new posts including regularization of daily-waged employees. (See Municipal Corporation, Bilaspur v. Veer Singh Rajput (1998)9SCC258 ) ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... gular or regularization do not connote permanence and cannot be construed so as to convey an idea of the nature of tenure of appointments. They are terms calculated to condone any procedural irregularities and are meant to cure only such defects as are attributable to methodology followed in making the appointments. This Court emphasised that when rules framed under Article 309 of the Constitution are in force, no regularization is permissible in exercise of the executive powers of the Government under Article 162 of the Constitution in contravention of the rules. These decisions and the principles recognised therein have not been dissented to by this Court and on principle, we see no reason not to accept the proposition as enunciated in the above decisions. We have, therefore, to keep this distinction in mind and proceed on the basis that only something that is irregular for want of compliance with one of the elements in the process of selection which does not go to the root of the process, can be regularised and that it alone can be regularised and granting permanence of employment is a totally different concept and cannot be equated with regularization. 53. One aspect ne ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y the appellant had not been maintained. Even cases of minorities had not been given due consideration. The Constitution Bench thought of directing regularization of the services only of those employees whose appointments were irregular as explained in State of Mysore v. S.V. Narayanappa [1967]1SCR128 , R.N. Nanjundappa v. T. Thimmiah (1972)ILLJ565SC and B.N. Nagarajan v. State of Karnataka (1979)IILLJ209SC wherein this Court observed: [ Umadevi (3) case 1 , SCC p.24, para 16] 16 . In B.N. Nagarajan v. State of Karnataka (1979)IILLJ209SC this Court clearly held that the words 'regular' or 'regularization' do not connote permanence and cannot be construed so as to convey an idea of the nature of tenure of appointments. They are terms calculated to condone any procedural irregularities and are meant to cure only such defects as are attributable to methodology followed in making the appointments. Judged by the standards laid down by this Court in the aforementioned decisions, the appointments of the respondents are illegal. They do not, thus, have any legal right to continue in service. {See also State of Madhya Pradesh and Ors. v. Yogesh Chandra Dub ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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