High Court of Punjab and HaryanaCWP/26453/2025dismissed

Sanjeev Kumar And ORS v. State Of Haryana And ORS

2025-09-08Mr. Justice Harpreet Singh Brar7 pages

IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT

CHANDIGARH CWP-26453-2025 (O&M) Date of decision: 08.09.2025 Sanjeev Kumar and others ....Petitioners

Versus

State of Haryana and others ....Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE HARPREET SINGH BRAR

Present:

Mr. Ranjivan Singh, Advocate with Mr. Risham Raag Singh, Advocate for the petitioners.

Mr. Piyush Khanna, Addl. A.G., Haryana for respondents No.1 to 3.

Mr. Surinder Choudhary, Advocate for respondent No.6.

Mr. Sukhdeep Singh Parmar, Advocate for respondent No.7.

HARPREET SINGH BRAR J. (Oral)

1. The present Civil Writ Petition is preferred under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India for the issuance of the following writs, orders, and directions:

(A) A Writ of Certiorari for quashing the impugned Letter dated 07.05.2025 (Annexure P-28) issued by Respondent No. 2, whereby the proposal for extension of 33 contractual employees, including the Petitioners, for four months from 01.04.2025 to 31.07.2025 was declined, and to further quash the action of the Respondents for not granting an extension up to 30.09.2025, which is illegal, arbitrary, unjust, discriminatory, and in violation of Articles 14 & 16

of the Constitution, especially in light of the extensions granted to similarly situated employees through Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Ltd. (Respondent No. 4) as per Government Instructions (Annexures P-30, P-31, and P34); (B) A Writ of Mandamus (i) directing the Respondents to grant a formal extension to all Petitioners up to 30.09.2025 (and as may be further extended) who are working on Class III/IV Contractual Posts in the Respondent-Board, deployed through Respondent No. 4, in view of Government Instructions (P-30, P-31, P-34), and to permit them to continue their services without break from 01.04.2025 with all consequential benefits including salary; (ii) directing the Respondent-State to positively consider the duly approved Agenda No. 6 of the Haryana Livestock Development Board from its meeting held on 04.05.

2023 (Annexure P-33) for extension of the contractual staff/Petitioners up to the year 2027; and (iii) directing the State of Haryana to favorably consider the proposal of the Administrative Department mooted vide Noting Sheet dated 01.04.2025 to 03.06.

(D) An exemption from filing certified copies of Annexures P-1 to P-35, permitting the filing of legible photo/typed copies thereof in the interest of justice.

The brief facts of the case are that the petitioners were initially appointed between the year 2020-2021 on Class III and IV posts in the Haryana Livestock Development Board (HLDB) on

contractual basis through M/s SAS Security and Manpower Services (Annexures P-3 to P-6). In light of the State Government's policy, the previous outsourcing mechanism was discontinued vide Government Instructions dated 28.09.2021, and a new Deployment of Contractual Persons Policy, 2022 came into force w.e.f. 01.04.2022 (Annexures P-7 and P-8). Pursuant to this, the petitioners were formally brought under the said policy through Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited (HKRNL) vide deployment offer letters issued in March/April, 2022 (Annexures P-9 to P-16A), and their services continued uninterrupted, with fixed pay at DC rates and EPF coverage. The Department of Finance approved their continuation from 01.04.2022 to 31.03.2024 based on a proposal by the Animal Husbandry Department (Annexures P-17 and P-18).

Further quarterly extensions for the periods 01.04.2024 upto 30.06.2024, 01.07.2024 upto 30.09.2024 and 01.10.2024 upto 31.03.2025 were duly approved (Annexures P-19 to P-21). Meanwhile, HKRNL issued detailed guidelines for renewal of contractual deployment beyond 31.03.2025 (Annexure P-22), prompting HLDB to initiate the extension process through internal communications (Annexures P-23 and P-24). A formal proposal for extension from 01.04.2025 to 31.03.2026 was submitted to the Finance Department by HLDB's Chairman, citing the petitioners' long-standing dedicated service (Annexure P-25).

only a 4-month extension up to 31.07.2025 (Annexure P-28), citing absence of sanctioned posts despite internal notings and departmental recommendations highlighting urgent requirements and agreeing to secure sanction in due course (Annexure P-29). Simultaneously, the Chief Secretary, Haryana issued state-wide instructions extending the contractual deployment of HKRNL employees till 31.07.2025 and further till 30.09.2025, with the approval of the Chief Minister (Annexures P-30 and P-34), and allowed payment of salary for April to June, 2025 (Annexure P-31). Despite these clear government directions, the petitioners were arbitrarily denied permission to mark attendance or discharge duties from 01.04.2025 by respondent No.8 (Managing Director, HLDB), prompting the petitioners to submit a representation dated 02.05.2025 (Annexure P-27).

The Additional Chief Secretary took a serious view and directed the Managing Director, HLDB to revisit the matter, noting that refusal to continue the petitioners, who had been serving since 2020, could attract judicial scrutiny. Earlier, the 46th Meeting of the HLDB Board of Directors held on 04.05.2023 had already approved, in principle, the extension of contractual staff including the petitioners, with directions to rationalize and continue such staff till 2027 (Annexures P-32 and P-33), but no steps were taken thereafter due to the unexplained inaction of respondent No.8. A letter dated 30.01.2025 (Annexure P-35) also confirmed that there are no sanctioned posts in Group C and D categories in HLDB, even though 335 persons were working in these categories through HKRNL.

of the same, the petitioners contend that their exclusion from service extension is illegal, arbitrary, and discriminatory, especially when other similarly placed contractual employees under HKRNL across departments were allowed to continue till 30.09.2025. Hence this writ petition.

Learned counsel for the petitioner inter alia contends that the action of the respondents in declining extension to the petitioners beyond 31.03.2025, while granting uniform extensions to all other similarly situated contractual employees deployed through HKRNL across all State departments upto 30.09.2025 vide Government Instructions (Annexures P-30 and P-34), is arbitrary and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. Further the State Government issued orders (Annexures P-30, P-31, P-34) extending the services of all HKRNL, deployed contractual employees in other departments/boards upto 30.09.2025. The petitioners were solely excluded from this general extension and were not allowed to work from 01.04.2025 on the verbal orders of the Managing Director of HLDB. Learned counsel for the petitioner relies on the relief granted to similarly situated employees in CWP-24367-2025 titled as Suresh and Others vs. State of Haryana.

Learned State counsel contends that the petitioners are not entitled to any relief as they do not fulfill the minimum tenure of 5 years on contractual basis through HKRNL as such they are not protected

under the Haryana Contractual Employees Security Services Act 2024, which secures their tenure till the age of superannuation. 5.

Further learned counsel for respondents No.6 and 7, submits that the petitioners cannot claim parity with the interim protection granted by this court in Suresh's case (supra), as the petitioners therein had fulfilled the 5 year criteria and thus the petitioners in the present case is not similarly situated with the petitioners in Suresh's case (supra).

I have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record with their able assistance.

The relevant part of the Haryana Contractual Employees Security Services Act 2024 are reproduced below, "3. The eligible contractual employee shall be an employee who,- (i) (a) has been engaged on contract by the Government Organization and is in the service of such Government Organization on the appointed date and receiving remuneration upto Rs. 50,000/- per month; or (b) is deployed by the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam under the Deployment of Contractual Persons Policy, 2022 and is in the service of a Government Organization on the appointed date; (ii) has completed at least five years service in the Government Organization on full time basis as on the appointed date.

Explanation 1.- The period of service shall be considered as the period for which remuneration was made, directly or indirectly, by the Government Organization to the eligible contractual employee and shall include the period of any leave approved by the competent authority."

Learned counsel for the petitioners could not point out whether the case of the petitioners is covered under any policy of the State of Haryana or respondents No. 4 and 6, in support of their claim in the present petition. The petitioners cannot claim extension as they do not fulfill the minimum tenure of 5 years before the cutoff date to be considered as an eligible contractual employee. As such, they cannot claim it as a vested right.

In view of the discussions above, the present petition is dismissed.

(HARPREET SINGH BRAR) JUDGE 08.09.2025 yakub Whether speaking/reasoned:

Yes/No Whether reportable:

Yes/No