U O I
v.
Harish Balkrishna Mahajan
(Supreme Court Of India)
Civil Appeal No. 14527 Of 1996 (Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 16068 Of 1995) | 23-10-1996
1. Leave granted.
2. The respondent was temporarily appointed as a Medical Officer on monthly basis in the Central Government Health Scheme on August 10, 1982. During the unfortunate strike of the doctors as trade unionists, unmindful of the ethical and medical code of conduct, he was appointed and even continued in the service till August, 1987. When his services were terminated, he had gone to the Tribunal and filed OA No. 701/89. The Tribunal in the impugned order dated 12.12.1994 directed the appellants to regularise the service of the respondent in consultation with the Public Service Commission. Thus, this appeal by special leave.
3. The controversy is no longer res integra. In similar circumstances, this Court had considered the entire controversy in J & K Public Service Commission and others v. Dr. Narinder Mohan and others, (1994) 2 SCC 630 [LQ/SC/1993/1054] . Admittedly, the posts of doctors in the Central Government Health Scheme are required to be filled up by recruitment through Union Public Service Commission. Therefore, the direction to consider the case of the respondent in consultation with the Public Service Commission for regularisation is in violation of the statutory rules and Article 320 of the Constitution of India. The only course known to law is that the Union of India shall be required to notify the recruitment to the Public Service Commission and Union Public Service Commission shall conduct the examination inviting the applications from all the eligible persons including the persons like the respondents. It would be for the respondent to apply for and seek selection in accordance with Rules. Therefore, the direction is in violation of Article 320 of the Constitution.
4. The learned counsel for the respondent seeks to place reliance on the directions issued by this Court in Jacob M. Puthuparambil v. Kerala Water Authority, 1991(1) SCT 627(SC) : (1987) Supp. SCC 497 [LQ/SC/1987/670] . It is seen that the Public Service Commission was required to recruit the candidates and, therefore, the additional Medical Officers working in the Railway Department in the latter case were directed to be regularised in consultation with the Union Public Service Commission. It would be seen that when the recruitment was to be made, in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the Public Service Commission in terms of the statutory Rules made under Article 320 of the Constitution, necessarily the recruitment is required to be made in that manner and in no other manner. Therefore, this Court did not intend to by- pass the above procedure in regularisation of their services. This Court, in similar circumstances, considered the same question in Union of India and others v. Dr. Arun Kumar Sharma, 1994(4) SCT 589(SC) CA No. 4876/94.
5. In that view, the appeal is allowed. The order of the Tribunal stands set aside. It would be open to the respondent to apply for selection. In case he is barred by age, it is needless to mention that the Union of India would consider necessary relaxation of the age to the extent of the period of service he has rendered on temporary basis. No costs.
6. Appeal allowed.
Advocates List
For the Appellants - Mr. N.N. Goswami, Sr. Advocate with Ms. Binu Tamta and Mr. V.K. Verma, Advocates. For the Respondent - Mr. Gopal Jain and Mr. Mukul Mudgal, Advocates.
For Petitioner
- Shekhar Naphade
- Mahesh Agrawal
- Tarun Dua
For Respondent
- S. Vani
- B. Sunita Rao
- Sushil Kumar Pathak
Bench List
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K. RAMASWAMY
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE G.B. PATTANAIK
Eq Citation
1996 (6) SLR 669
JT 1997 (10) SC 375
1996 (8) SCALE 333
(1997) 3 SCC 194
LQ/SC/1996/1743
HeadNote
A. Constitution of India — Arts. 309, 320 and 323 — Regularisation of services — Regularisation of temporary employees — Requirement of recruitment through Public Service Commission (PSC) — Violation of — Held, posts of doctors in Central Government Health Scheme required to be filled up by recruitment through Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) — Direction to consider respondent's case in consultation with PSC for regularisation, held, in violation of statutory rules and Art. 320 — Union of India directed to notify recruitment to PSC and PSC to conduct examination inviting applications from all eligible persons including persons like respondent — Respondent to apply for and seek selection in accordance with rules — Age relaxation to be considered by Union of India to extent of period of service rendered on temporary basis B. Service Law — Recruitment — Recruitment Rules — Recruitment to be made in accordance with procedure prescribed by Public Service Commission (PSC) in terms of statutory Rules made under Art. 320 of Constitution — Recruitment is required to be made in that manner and in no other manner — Hence, regularisation of services of persons who were not recruited in accordance with procedure prescribed by PSC, held, is not permissible