Illegal hiring: HC seeks report about payment from UP

Allahabad High Court has directed the Urban Development department of Uttar Pradesh to file a compliance report within three months giving details of payments made to employees appointed illegally on contractual or daily wage basis across the state.
The court also asked about the realisation of the amount from the concerned guilty officials.
Justice Surya Prakash Kesarwani yesterday directed Principal Secretary, Urban Development to file the report while dismissing petitions of hundreds of contractual/daily wage workers whose services were terminated by local bodies across the state in pursuance of government orders.
The state government had directed all concerned officials to "fix the liability of the officers who unauthorisedly and illegally appointed persons on contract basis and departmental proceedings be initiated against them and action taken report be submitted within 15 days".

The court was, however, informed by the state government in its affidavit that "in reality no action has been taken" against the erring officials even though the policy decision, whereby all such appointments which were made without any regular vacancies had been declared as illegal, had been in place since December 6 1991.
The court was of the view that "the government is entitled to lay down its policy" and there could not be a judicial review" unless the policy can be faulted on account of mala fide, unreasonableness, arbitrariness or unfairness etc".
Dismissing all the petitions filed by the daily wagers/contract employees, the court, however, also asked the Principal Secretary to ensure that action was taken against all the erring officials and compliance report be filed "within three months, on or before September 1, 2014".