Dr. Surendra Kumar Saikia And 3 Ors. vs. The Union Of India And 3 Ors.

WP(C) 1875/2017 BEFORE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE HRISHIKESH ROY

The four petitioners are serving in a Centrally Sponsored Scheme i.e. Support to State Extension Programmes for Extension Reforms under the Agricultural Technol ogy Management Agency (ATMA), of the Department of Agriculture, Assam. The appoi ntments were made on contractual basis, as per the advertisement(s) of 2011 and 2012 respectively, of the Agriculture Department. Currently, the first two petit ioners serving as Deputy Project Director and the petitioner Nos. 3 & 4, are ser ving as Deputy Director.

The tenure of contractual appointment is made co-terminous to continuati on of the scheme and it can be noted that the ATMA scheme is ordered to continue during 2017 - 2018, under the Extension Circular of December, 2016 (Annexure-27 ).

Mr. A.D. Choudhury, the learned Counsel submits that petitioners are ent itled to continue in their contractual tenure until the ATMA scheme continues, u nless there is an assessment of non-performance, by the employer. But in the pre sent case, the performances have not been assessed and yet, there have been seve ral attempts earlier, to discontinue the service of the contractual appointees.

The case record shows that service was sought to be terminated initially on 20.5.2016 but stay order was passed by this Court on 31.05.2016 in the WP(C) NO.3303/2016 and WP(C) No.3305/2016. Thereafter the termination notices were wi thdrawn on 28.12.2016 but it was followed immediately with the 2nd termination notice dated 29.12.2016.

The aggrieved parties then filed the WP(C) No.413/2017 and WP(C) No.428/2017 whe re the interim order was passed by this Court on 25.1.2017, staying the terminat ion of the contractual service.

The petitioners contend that even though response is yet to be filed in the two pending cases, the authorities are determined to replace the petitioners , despite the on-going project. But this time, a different strategy is adopted b y issuing the impugned advertisement dated 16.3.2017 (Page-75) to outsource the works, inter alia, of the Deputy Director and Deputy Project Director, where the petitioners are currently serving.

In view of above, let Notice returnable in 6 weeks be issued. Mr. S.C. K eyal, the learned CGC accepts notice for the respondent No.1. The learned Govern ment Advocate Mr. S.R. Baruah accepts notice for the respondent Nos.2, 3 & 4. Ex tra copies be furnished to both the lawyers.

In the interim, if the ATMA scheme continues and there is no adverse fin ding on the performance parameters, against the petitioners, their contractual s ervice is protected. In other words, the contractual service will be co-terminou s with the ATMA scheme and the petitioners shall not be replaced by another set of ad-hoc employees.