Title - HC permits railways to regularise 530 substitutes

Nearly 500 persons working as substitutes in safety categories under Group D services in railways are to be benefitted with the Madras High Court permitting the administration to regularise their services from the date of their engagement.A Division Bench comprising Justices R.Banumathi and T.S.Sivagnanam passed the order while confirming an order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) of November 16, 2006.The educational qualification for Group D was a pass in Standard VIII. The services mainly comprise unskilled labour such as Khalasi, Sweepers, Sweeper-cum-Porters, Trackman etc. In June 2004, the Railway Board said Course Completed Act Apprentices (CCAAs) may be engaged as substitutes in administrative exigencies by General Managers. The Southern Railway General Manager approved the engagement of such apprentices trained in railway establishments as substitutes in vacancies to meet out the bare minimum requirement of manpower. On November 29, 2004, a notification calling for applications from CCAAs was issued.Aggrieved by the notification, two persons filed an application before the CAT contending that in the guise of engaging substitutes to regular vacancies in Group D, the railways was attempting to make a backdoor appointments, ignoring rules and constitutional provisions. The Supreme Court had held that CCAAs had no right to be appointed in preference to other applicants and they should go through the selection process. Hence, the notification was illegal.

Disposing of the application, the tribunal said that as public employment should be strictly in terms of the constitutional scheme, the railways could not short-circuit its responsibility for recruitment to departmental posts through public notice from the market. The tribunal modified the relief sought for by the applicants to the extent that the November 2004 notification should not become a source of recruitment for departmental position en masse.

Challenging this order, the railways preferred the present petition before the High Court.

Dismissing the petition, the Bench said that after referring to Supreme Court judgments, the tribunal had rightly held that regular posts were to be filled only through open recruitment as per rules and in keeping with the law laid down by the Supreme Court. It said there was no infirmity in the tribunal’s order.

As regards 530 candidates who were engaged as substitutes in safety categories during November 2009 and who were still continuing without being regularised, the Bench said they had been engaged pursuant to an interim order of the court.

Also, in an affidavit, the railways had stated that the candidates for Act apprentices training were taken based on the numbers prescribed by the Directorate of Apprenticeship Training by issuing a notification calling for applications from the open market with copies to employment exchanges, and selections were being done after a written test and viva voce. Therefore, it could not be said that the engagement of the 530 persons was illegal. It could not be said to be without reference to extant rules, the Bench said and permitted the railways to regularise their services.


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