NDLI: University of Delhi Vs. Delhi University Contract Employees Union & Ors.

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	by contractual employee Service law: Appointment – Claim for
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Case(s) Referred	Referred Case 0 Referred Case 1 Referred Case 2 Referred Case 3 Referred Case 4 Referred Case 5
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Disposed Off
Headnote	Service law: Appointment – Claim for, by contractual employee – Advertisement published on 06.11.2013 inviting applications for 255 posts of Junior Assistants in the University – However, during the period from 2003 to 2013, various contractual appointments were made by University as a result of which about 300 Junior Assistants were in employment of University –Soon after the advertisement, Union filed writ petition – A Single Judge of High Court rejected writ petition relying on decision in Secretary, State of Karnataka & Ors. vs. Umadevi – In the recruitment process, pursuant to the advertisement, the Junior Assistants employed on contractual basis, also participated – All contractual appointees were granted age relaxation – However, only 120 regular appointments could be made by the University out of which 10 were contractual appointees and members of the Union –The Union filed an appeal before Division Bench of High Court – During the pendency of appeal, factual details pertaining to the members of the Union were placed on record, which show that the earliest contract employees were appointed in the year 2003 while the last appointees were of the year 2013 – Division Bench allowed the appeal and University was directed to hold an appropriate test for selection in terms of advertisement – Aggrieved University and also Union filed appeals – By interim order, the direction to hold special tests was stayed but it was directed that contract employees would continue to work in the positions held by them on provisional basis until the next round of selections – The contract employees were however granted liberty to participate in any selection process held in future – When these appeals came up before this Court on 22.10.2019, it was noted that even after the selection undertaken in 2013, there remained regular vacancies – The University was therefore directed to file an appropriate affidavit indicating the status In affidavit dated 13.11.2019, University indicated that 124 regular posts of Junior Assistants were lying vacant – In affidavit dated 09.03.2021 of University, it was stated that a decision was taken that in order to facilitate contractual employees to participate in recruitment process, age relaxation as well as certain advantage for the service rendered as contract employees would be given by University – Paragraphs 6 and 7 of the affidavit was to the effect that to enable the contractual employees to participate in the recruitment process, a comprehensive age relaxation with respect to the upper age limit has been given to the contract employees working at the University in the recruitment process and in addition, a maximum of upto 10 extra marks, depending on the number of years of service of the contract employee, would be given to them while finalizing the merit – Held: The contract employees in the present case cannot claim the relief of regularization in terms of paragraph 53 of the decision in Umadevi – The rejection of their petition by Single Judge of the High Court was correct and there was no occasion for the Division Bench to interfere in the matter – It is true that, as on the day when the judgment in Umadevi was delivered by this Court, the contract employees had put in just about 3 to 4 years of service – But, as of now, most of them have completed more than 10 years of service on contract basis – Though the benefit of regularization cannot be granted, a window of opportunity must be given to them to compete with the available talent through public advertisement – The modality suggested by University will give them adequate chance and benefit to appear in the ensuing selection – All the contract employees engaged by the University should be afforded benefits as detailed in paragraphs 6 and 7 of affidavit dated 09.03.2021 with following modifications: (a) The benefit of age relaxation as contemplated in paragraph 6 of affidavit without any qualification must be extended to all the contract employees; (b) In modification of paragraph 7 of the affidavit, those employees who were engaged in the year 2011 be given the benefit of 10 marks in the ensuing selection process while for every additional year that a contract employee had put in, benefit of one more mark subject to the ceiling of 8 additional marks be given; (c) The Public Notice inviting applications from the candidates shall specifically state that the advantage in terms of the order passed by this Court would be conferred upon the contract employees so that other candidates are put to adequate notice; (d) All the contract employees shall be entitled to offer their candidature for the ensuing selection in next four weeks and in order to give them sufficient time to prepare, the test shall be undertaken only after three months of the receipt of applications from the candidates – Paragraphs 6 and 7 of the affidavit with the modifications as directed will sub-serve the purpose – Such directions will not only afford chance to the contract employees to participate in the selection process regardless of their age but will also entitle them to some advantage over the other participants.
Judge	Honble Mr. Justice Uday Umesh Lalit
Neutral Citation	2021 INSC 209
Petitioner	University Of Delhi
Respondent	Delhi University Contract Employees Union & Ors.
SCR	[2021] 3 S.C.R. 859
Judgement Date	2021-03-25
Case Number	1007

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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