Golakha Chandra Panda vs State Of Odisha & Ors

Dr. S.K. Panigrahi, J

The Petitioner through this Writ Petition seeks a direction from this Court to the Opp. Parties for regularization of his service in the post of Peon where services of his juniors were regularised ignoring his case as a handicapped person and the age of 58 years.

I. CASE OF THE PETITIONER:

The brief fact of the case is that:

(i) The Petitioner was appointed as a chain man in the office of the Cuttack Major Settlement at Cuttack on job contract basis on 05.02.1985. While the Petitioner was posted at Talajanga Camp to work as Chain man under A.S.O., Balarampur, on 06.02.1993 he met an accident and his left leg got fractured. After recovery he joined in the service.

(ii) Thereafter, the petitioner joined before the Opp. Party No.4 and continued there till today. In the meantime, some juniors /job contract employee's service have been regularised. However, the authority transferred the Petitioner to Sambalpur district to join in a regular post. Considering that the Petitioner is a handicapped person, he challenged the transfer order before this Court in W.P.(C) No.12,125 of 2012 and this Court directed the Opp. Parties to allow the petitioner to continue in Nizarat section, Cuttack Major Settlement, Cuttack.

(iii) Thereafter, the said case was disposed of directing the authorities to regularize the service of the Petitioner as per law. In the meantime, some services of junior employees were regularised. The said action was challenged before this Court in W.P.(C) No.26,175 of 2013 which was disposed of on 12.02.14 directing the Opp. Party No.2 to consider and to disposed of the representation of the petitioner as expeditiously as possible with in a period of two months. Thereafter again the Opp. Party No.2 transferred the petitioner to Sambalpur.

(iv) The said impugned order was challenged in O.A. No.89(C)/15, where the transfer order was stayed due to physical handicapped and directed the Opp. Parties to allow the Petitioner to continue before the Opp. Party No.4.

(v) It is submitted that on 21.03.2014 the Opp. Party No.2 issued a letter indicating Petitioner's serial No.342 of the district gradation list of Jagatsinghpur. In the year 2018 two juniors employees namely Ranjan Kumar Jena and Sadasiba Das, were regularised as per direction of O.A.T in O.A. No. 240(c)/17 and O.A No. 241(c)/17.

(vi) On 02.02.19 the Opp. Party No.2 issued a letter to the Opp. Party No.4 to furnish the category wise unreserved Class IV regular vacancy position for consideration of regularization matter of the petitioner. Thereafter, the Opp. Party No.2 without regularizing the petitioner service before the office of Opp. Party No.4, the Petitioner was transferred to Cuttack district office to do field work on regular basis.

(vii) The petitioner approached the authority to regularize the service of the petitioner to be posted before the office of the settlement officer Cuttack. However, ignoring the representation of the petitioner and order of this Court, the Opp. Party again directed to join before Collector, Cuttack to do field work.

(viii) Thereafter, the petitioner approached with a representation to the Opp. Party No.1 on 20.12.2019 for regularization of service from the date of juniors were regularised and one copy forwarded to the Opp. Party No.4 for information and necessary action. The said representation is pending before the Opp. Party No.1.

(ix) It is submitted that the petitioner is a 50% physically handicapped person and aged about 58 years, he has been moving from Tribunal to High court again and again.

(x) Hence, this Writ Petition.

II. SUBMISSIONS ON BEHALF OF THE OPPOSITE PARTIES 2 TO 4:

Learned counsel for the Opposite Party Nos.2 to 4 earnestly made the following submissions in support of his contentions.

(i) It is submitted that, the petitioner Sri Golakha Chandra Panda initially joined as Job Contract Class-IV employees in the relevant organization on 05.02.1985. The name of the petitioner appears at Sl. No-342 of the District Gradation List of Jagatasinghpur.

(ii) It is submitted that the Petitioner, thereafter, filed a Writ Petition bearing W.P.(C) No.26175 of 2013 for his regularization. The Court while disposing of the matter have been pleased to direct on 12.02.2014 to the Opp. Party No.2 i.e. Director Land Records Surveys & Consolidation Odisha Cuttack to dispose of the representation within a period of two months. The said order was received by the office of the Director Land Records Surveys & Consolidation. Odisha, Cuttack and disposed of the representation of the Petitioner dated 18.02.2014 vide Boards office Order No- 1626/LR&S dated 21.03.2014 with a next memo to the applicant with an observation that "the applicant is found place at the SI No-342 of the District Gradation List Of Jagatasinghpur and his turn for regularization has not reached as more than 80 numbers of Job Contract employees senior to the applicant are awaiting for regularization and he will be regularized when his turn will come".

(iii) It is submitted that the Board of Revenue, Odisha Cuttack had sponsored the name of petitioner including other 22 numbers of Job Contract employees to Collector Sambalpur for their absorption in regular Class IV post vide Boards letter No-51/CH Dt-01.01.2015.

(iv) It is further submitted that the immediate junior in the District Gradation list of Jagatasinghpur Sl-343 named Sri Kalandi Chandra Das had joined in the District of Sambalpur as per the aforesaid order of Board of Revenue Odisha Cuttack. But the petitioner had challenged the sponsored order and filed an OA Case No. 89C/2015, wherein the OAT passed an interim order No.04 dated 20.01.2015 stating that "status quo of the applicant as on date be maintained till the next date It is, however, made clear that pendency of the O.A is not a bar for consideration of the case of applicant for posting him in Cuttack district, if suitable vacancy is available."

(v) It is further contended that name of Sri Ranjan Kumar Jena & Sri Sadashiba Das, Ex-Job Contort Class IV employees were sponsored by Board of Revenue, Odisha Cuttack to Bolangir and Subarnapur District respectively. But they filed OA Cases No.240C/2017 and OA Case No.241C/2017 respectively with a request to regularize their service against the vacancy of Director Surveys & Map publication, Odisha, Cuttack. The Learned OAT disposed of the aforesaid OA cases with an instruction that "Keeping in view the submission of both the sides and without going into the merits of the case, a copy of the paper book be sent to respondent no-2 with a direction to consider the representation of the applicant and pass appropriate order on merit with a period of two months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and intimate the result thereof soon thereafter."

(vi) Accordingly, the service of Sri Sadashiba Das, Ex- Job Contort Class IV was regularised in the post of Choukidar in that office vide this office order No.450/Dt- 13.02.2018 as per the instruction issued by Boards Letter No-409/CH Dt-07.02.2018 and the Service of Sri Ranjan Kumar Jena Ex-Job Contort Class -IV was regularised in the post of Helper in the office of Joint Director Surveys & Map publication, Odisha, Cuttack vide this office order no-2366/Dt-16.08.2019 as per the instruction Boards Memo No-282/CH Dt-02.02.2019.

(vii) Learned counsel for the Opposite Parties, accordingly, prays for dismissal of this Writ Petition.

III. COURT’S REASONING AND ANALYSIS:

As per the instruction of the OAT in OA Case No. 89C/2015, the Board of Revenue has sponsored the name of petitioner to the Collector Cuttack for his regularization vide Boards Memo No-632/CH. dated 21.02.2017. Accordingly, the Deputy Collector Estt., Collector Cuttack directed Sri Golakha Ch. Panda to produce the documents for necessary verification with a request to Settlement officer Cuttack to serve the notice upon the employee concerned vide their Memo No.860 dated 18.03.2017. However, the Petitioner did not agree to receive the verification letter.

The said fact was intimated to all concerned vide that office Letter No.1005 dated 27.03.2017. The service of the Petitioner has been regularized in the post of Map Moharir in this Organization vide this office letter no-263 dated 01.02.2021 and as per the instruction of the Boards Letter No-128/LR&S dated 13.01.2021. The Petitioner has already been Retired from Govt Service on attaining the age of superannuation on 28.02.2022 and all retirement benefits has already been sanctioned by the Settlement officer Cuttack as pension sanctioning Authority and Pension payment order, Gratuity payment order & Commutation pension Order has already been issued by the Accountant General (A&E) Odisha, Bhubaneswar as per law in the favour of the Petitioner. Therefore, this Court does not deem it necessary to accede to the submission of the Petitioner.

With respect to the aforesaid discussion and the cases cited hereinabove, this Court is not inclined to entertain the prayer of the Petitioner.

This Writ Petition is, accordingly, dismissed. No order as to costs.

Interim order, if any, passed earlier stands vacated.

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