THE STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH & ORS.versusUTTAM SINGH

                        [2021] 8 S.C.R. 345                              345


           THE STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH & ORS.                             A
                                  v.
                          UTTAM SINGH
                   (Civil Appeal No. 4575 of 2021)
                         AUGUST 03, 2021                                 B
  [SANJAY KISHAN KAUL AND HRISHIKESH ROY, JJ.]
       Service Law: Compassionate appointment – By impugned
order of High Court, respondent was granted benefit of
compassionate appointment on account of demise of his father who
                                                                         C
was working with the appellants – Challenged by appellant-
Department on the ground that father of respondent was not regular
employee and was merely granted equivalent benefits on the principle
of ‘equal pay for equal work’ and therefore, respondent was not
entitled to the benefit of compassionate appointment – Held: There
is no error in the view of High Court that the appointment of father     D
of respondent was against the regular vacancy though it continued
to be termed as a ‘Part Time’ appointment apart from the fact that
his work hours were of a regular employee entitling him to equal
pay for equal work – During his 13 long years of employment and
before that having battled the appellants for 6 years to get his dues,
                                                                         E
the deceased employee was also transferred from one department
to the other, normally an aspect which would be associated with a
person who had a regular employment – The most significant aspect
was that had the deceased employee not been considered a regular
appointee, there would have been no occasion for the Department
to volunteer his services to the State Election Commission to perform    F
election duties, which is done only by a Government employee, as
is specified under s.159 of the Representation of the People Act,
1950 – Further, at least two persons were employed in a similar
scenario whose father and husband respectively died in harness as
Part Time tubewell operators – It is apparent that there is an
                                                                         G
discrimination against the respondent possibly arising from the
previous litigation between the appellants and the deceased father
of the respondent – There is no satisfactory explanation for the
same – No interference with the order of High Court called for.

                                                                         H
                                 345
346            SUPREME COURT REPORTS                      [2021] 8 S.C.R.


A           Dismissing the appeal, the Court
             HELD: 1. The High court noted the contention that though
      the father of the respondent was termed as a Part Time tubewell
      operator but he was always treated as a regular employee. The
      order of appointment in the case of the father of the respondent
B     was found to be unambiguous in its terms in accordance with
      norms after verification of all his certificates. A complete process
      of selection was conducted by the appellants as the employer. At
      the first instance, appointment was denied to him on account of
      he not being a resident of the command area of the tubewell
      concerned but this ground was found unsustainable by the judicial
C     view taken by the High Court by an earlier order dated 29.01.2003
      and consequently the father of the respondent was appointed. It
      is in these given facts of the case that it has been found that the
      benefit should be made available to the respondent under the
      Rules. The facts have been found sufficient by the High Court to
D     come to the conclusion that the appointment of the father of the
      respondent was against a regular vacancy and that is why in that
      background from the inception regular pay-scale was allowed to
      him and he thus satisfied the parameters of the Rules aforesaid.
      [Para 8][350-B-F]
E           2. During his 13 long years of employment and before that
      having battled the appellants for the period of 6 years to get his
      dues, the father of the respondent was also transferred from one
      department to the other, normally an aspect which would be
      associated with a person who had a regular employment. The
      most significant aspect is that had the father of the respondent
F     not been considered a regular appointee, there would be no
      occasion for the Department to volunteer his services to the State
      Election Commission to perform election duties, which could have
      been done only by a Government employee, as is specified under
      Section 159 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (“Staff
G     of certain authorities to be made available for election work”).
      The present case is thus one which is peculiar in its given factual
      scenario which for all practical purposes, it is a case of an
      appointment against a regular vacancy. The respondent’s father
      was treated as a regular employee by the aforesaid conduct of
      the appellants even though he was labelled as a Part Time
H
 THE STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH & ORS. v. UTTAM SINGH                            347


tubewell operator. Further, at least 2 persons were employed in              A
a similar scenario whose father and husband respectively died in
harness as Part Time tubewell operators. It is quite obvious that
there is an discrimination against the respondent possibly arising
from the previous litigation between the appellants and the
deceased father of the respondent. There is no satisfactory
                                                                             B
explanation for the same and we cannot permit the appellant-
Department to harass the respondent in this manner. [Paras 10-
12][351-A-F]
      Gen. Manager, Uttaranchal Jal Sansthan v. Laxmi Devi
      & Ors. (2009) 7 SCC 205 : [2009] 9 SCR 791 –
      referred to.                                                           C

                        Case Law Reference
[2009] 9 SCR 791                  referred to              Para 4
      CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 4575
of 2021.                                                                     D
      From the Judgment and Order dated 10.09.2018 of the High Court
of Judicature at Allahabad in Special Appeal No.D-264 of 2018.
      V. Shekhar, Sr. Adv., Rajeev Kumar Dubey, Kamlendra Mishra,
Advs. for the Appellants.
                                                                             E
     R. M. Sinha, Ravindra S. Garia, Vishal Vishwadheesh,
Ms. Sukhneet Kaur, Shashank Singh, Advs. for the Respondents.
      The following Judgment of the Court was delivered
                          JUDGMENT
                                                                             F
      Leave granted.
       1. The appellants seek to assail the judgment of the Division Bench
of the Allahabad High Court in terms whereof the respondent before us
has been granted the benefit of compassionate appointment under the
Uttar Pradesh Recruitment of Dependants of Government Servants Dying         G
in Harness Rules, 1974 (hereinafter referred to as “the Rules”) on
account of demise of his father, who was working with the appellants.
      2. The father of the respondent had earlier waged a legal battle
against the appellant-Department arising out of his endeavour to get his
appointment post his selection for the post of Tubewell Operator. The
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348                SUPREME COURT REPORTS                       [2021] 8 S.C.R.


A     High Court in the impugned order opined that the selection process of
      the father of the respondent was unambiguous and against the regular
      vacancy whereby he had submitted all the requisite documents to the
      Irrigation Department. The case of the respondent is that the appellants
      held up this issue over six years and the actual appointment took place
      only on 29.01.2003. The respondent’s father continued to work and draw
B
      emoluments for a period of 13 years equivalent to the regular pay-scale
      till he unfortunately passed away on 09.03.2016.
             3. The case of the respondent is also that in identical matters, the
      appellants have appointed one Balram and one Smt. Geeta Devi, whose
      father and husband respectively died in harness, as Part Time Tubewell
C     Operators and many other candidates of whose record is not available.
      The respondent argues that he was singled out in being denied the benefit
      possibly on account of the earlier litigation between the father of the
      respondent and the appellant-Department.
              4. The case of the appellants is that the father of the respondent
D     had not been regularized and merely grant of equivalent benefits on the
      principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’ would not make him regular
      employee and thus the respondent is not entitled to the benefit of the
      Rules for compassionate employment. In this behalf reference is made
      to the judgment of this Court in Gen. Manager, Uttaranchal Jal Sansthan
E     vs Laxmi Devi & Ors. (2009) 7 SCC 205 stated to be dealing with the
      very Rule in question. It will be useful to reproduce the relevant extract
      of the Rules where Rule 2 (a)(iii) reads as under :
            “ 2. Definitions-
            ....
F
            (a) Government servant” means a Government employed in
            connection with the affairs of Uttar Pradesh who-
            (i) xxxxx
            (ii) Xxxxx
G           (iii) though not regularly appointment, had put in three years
            continuous service in regular vacancy in such employment;
            Explanation- “regularly appointed” means appointed in accordance
            with the procedure laid down for recruitment to the post of service,
            as the case may be;”
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 THE STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH & ORS. v. UTTAM SINGH                              349


       5. Thus the respondent contends that since his father was               A
employed for more than 3 years in continuous service, he was bound to
be considered as a Government Servant and thus the benefit should
extend to the respondent. On the other hand, relying upon the aforesaid
judgment where the same Rules have been analyzed, learned Senior
counsel for the appellants seeks to contend that this Court opined that a
                                                                               B
person not regularly appointed but who had otherwise put in 3 years
continuous service in a regular vacancy cannot mean to imply that a
Daily Wager would get the benefit of the Rule. We may, however, note
that the Court had opined on the facts of that case holding that benefit
would not accrue to the respondent. The regular vacancy was held to
mean a vacancy which occurred in posts sanctioned by the competent             C
authority. The service of the deceased employee had not actually been
regularized though they have claimed regularization. The fact that the
deceased employee was drawing salary in a regular pay-scale was held
not to mean that they are against a regular vacancy.
        6. We may note an interesting aspect pointed out by the learned        D
counsel for the respondent, inter alia, in his synopsis (as usual the
appellants did not consider it appropriate to assist this Court by filing a
synopsis as had been directed vide the last order, apart from the note on
the cause list!). The respondent has stated that during the period of 13
years of the employment of the father of the respondent, he was
transferred from the Irrigation Department to Panchayati Raj Department        E
as ‘Gram Panchayat Vikas Adhikari’ and vice versa, i.e, he was
transferred 2 or 3 times by the appellants and was even appointed as a
polling officer by State Election Commission on 15.10.2015, 26.11.2015
and 03.12.2015. It is thus the submission that there could not have been
such inter-departmental transfers and re-transfers if the father of the        F
respondent was not being considered as a regular employee. Not only
that, it is contended that there would possibly be no case where a person
is deployed under the Representation of People Act, 1951, who is not a
Government employee. This is apart from the fact that the respondent’s
father was the operator of 2 Government tubewells which was stated to
be equivalent to the job of a regular tubewell operator i.e., a 9 a.m. to 5.   G
P.m., which some times ran over more than 8 hours, subject to the demand
of farmers.
       7. Learned counsel for the appellants however gives an explanation
by stating that these persons were originally deployed as Gram Panchayat
Vikas Adhikari, transferred and re-transferred back and the challenge          H
350                SUPREME COURT REPORTS                              [2021] 8 S.C.R.


A     to the same was repelled in U.P. Gram Panchayat Adhikari vs Daya
      Ram Saroj & Ors., (2007) 2 SCC 138.
             8. If we turn to the impugned order of the Division Bench, the
      High Court has taken note of the Full Bench of the Allahabad High
      Court which is in consonance with the view propounded by this Court in
B     the case of Gen. Manager, Uttaranchal Jal Sansthan vs Laxmi Devi &
      Ors, (2009) 7 SCC 205 (supra)1. However, it noted the contention that
      though the father of the respondent was termed as a Part Time tubewell
      operator but he was always treated as a regular employee. The Court
      took note of the rule referred to aforesaid and the explanation given
      thereto which requires that an appointment with procedure laid down
C     for recruitment to the post or the service. The order of appointment in
      the case of the father of the respondent has been found to be unambiguous
      in its terms in accordance with norms after verification of all his
      certificates. A complete process of selection was conducted by the
      appellants as the employer. At the first instance, appointment was denied
D     to him on account of he not being a resident of the command area of the
      tubewell concerned but this ground was found unsustainable by the judicial
      view taken by the High Court by an earlier order dated 29.01.2003 and
      consequently the father of the respondent was appointed. It is in these
      given facts of the case that it has been found that the benefit should be
      made available to the respondent under the Rules. The facts have been
E     found sufficient by the High Court to come to the conclusion that the
      appointment of the father of the respondent was against a regular vacancy
      and that is why in that background from the inception regular pay-scale
      was allowed to him and he thus satisfied the parameters of the Rules
      aforesaid.
F            9. We are in complete agreement with the view taken by the High
      Court in the given factual scenario. We may say, it appears that the
      appellants, for reasons best known to them, endeavoured to deny the
      father of the respondent his dues even though the appointment was through
      a proper process. The High Court opined against the manner in which
G     the father of the respondent was denied employment. That is the reason
      that from the very inception he was given the benefits of a regular
      employee while designating him as a Part Time tubewell operator. The
      High Court has found that these facts show that the appointment was
      against the regular vacancy though it continued to be termed as a ‘Part
      1
H         Pavan Kumar Yadav v. State of Uttar Pradesh & Ors., (2010) 18 ADJ 664
 THE STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH & ORS. v. UTTAM SINGH                               351


Time’ appointment apart from the fact that his work hours were of a             A
regular employee entitling him to equal pay for equal work.
       10. We have also taken note of the fact that during his 13 long
years of employment and before that having battled the appellants for
the period of 6 years to get his dues, the father of the respondent was
also transferred from one department to the other, normally an aspect           B
which would be associated with a person who had a regular employment.
The most significant aspect is that had the father of the respondent not
been considered a regular appointee, there would be no occasion for the
Department to volunteer his services to the State Election Commission
to perform election duties, which could have been done only by a
Government employee, as is specified under Section 159 of the                   C
Representation of the People Act, 1950 (“Staff of certain authorities to
be made available for election work”).
       11. The present case is thus one which is peculiar in its given
factual scenario which we have discussed above and thus for all practical
purposes, it is a case of an appointment against a regular vacancy. The         D
respondent’s father was treated as a regular employee by the aforesaid
conduct of the appellants even though he was labelled as a Part Time
tubewell operator.
       12. We may like to further say that from the illustrations given by
the appellants, at least 2 persons, as noted before, were employed in a         E
similar scenario i.e., Balram and Smt. Geeta Devi whose father and
husband respectively died in harness as Part Time tubewell operators. It
is quite obvious that there is an discrimination against the respondent
possibly arising from the previous litigation between the appellants and
the deceased father of the respondent. There is no satisfactory                 F
explanation for the same and we cannot permit the appellant-Department
to harass the respondent in this manner.
      13. We are thus of the opinion that the course adopted by the
Division Bench of the High Court is in accordance with law and the
impugned order does not call for any interference.                              G
       14. The appeal is dismissed with costs throughout.
      15. The necessary orders be issued in the case of the respondent
within one month from date the order.

                                                                                H
Devika Gujral                                               Appeal dismissed.