The Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the operation of a single judge order that had directed regularisation of all UT teachers appointed under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) who had completed over 10 years of service.
The interim order was given by a division bench of Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor on Thursday while hearing an appeal filed by the Chandigarh Administration and another petitioner challenging the single judge ruling .
0n November 14 last year, a single judge bench had ordered the regularisation of all Chandigarh teachers appointed under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan who had completed more than 10 years of service, holding that the administration cannot “misuse” contractual labels to deny them the rights of regular employees.
The ruling had directed the Union Territory administration and the Centre to regularise eligible members of the SSA cadre within six weeks.
Appearing for the administration on Thursday, senior counsel Amit Jhanji, assisted by advocate Abhishek K Premi, argued that Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was a centrally sponsored scheme and that posts created under it were never merged with the regular teaching cadre of the Union Territory. In the absence of any policy decision or sanctioned posts, he contended, the writ petitioners could not claim a legal right to regularisation .
Senior panel counsel Himanshu Malik supported these submissions and sought a stay on the impugned judgment, submitting that its implementation would have far-reaching administrative and legal consequences.
Observing that the matter required consideration, the division bench issued notice of motion.
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The bench ordered that the single judge judgment will remain stayed until the next hearing on March 25, keeping the directions on regularisation on hold.
Chandigarh had appointed over 1,300 teachers under the SSA between 2005 and 2014 after public advertisements, written tests and verification of qualifications. Although the appointments replicated the procedure for regular government teachers, the educators remained on annual contracts, with the administration citing a lack of sanctioned posts.
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