SHIMLA: The High Court of Himachal Pradesh has ruled that the state government should act as a fair employer, regardless of changes in leadership. This verdict came as a response to a case where petitioners have sought proper benefits for their temporary employment.
A division bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Bipin Chander Negi, made this ruling while addressing a petition. The petitioners had worked initially as contract-based Junior Basic Teachers (JBT), and later became regular Shastri teachers.
Another petitioner had a similar trajectory, starting as a contract JBT and continuing without a break to become a regular JBT. However, their circumstances differed slightly.
The court concluded that when an employee works on a contract basis across different roles and then gets a regular position in a different role, only the period worked as a contract employee will count for pension purposes.
On the other hand, if an employee is directly appointed on a regular basis after a contract job without any gaps, their contract period should be considered for yearly raises and pension benefits.
The court expressed concern that despite previous orders to the contrary, the state continues to employ unfair policies to avoid granting rightful benefits to employees.
The state achieves this by altering job titles and schemes, thus perpetuating the use of temporary appointments.
The court cited examples like Voluntary Teachers, ad-hoc Teachers, Vidya Upasaks, and other similar titles, which the state uses to bypass court directives and deny full benefits to temporary teachers.
As a remedy, the court has instructed the state to provide the appropriate financial benefits to the petitioners for the three years prior to filing the petition.
Benefits exceeding this period should be calculated hypothetically and granted accordingly.