K.Amirtha Mary And ORS. v. The Union Of India And Others

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

[CIRCUIT BENCH AT PORT BLAIR] ...

WPA/1089/2023 K.Amirtha Mary and others Vs The Union of India and others Mrs. Anjili Nag ... for the petitioner Mr. Shatadru Chakraborty Mr. Dibesh Dwivedi ... for the respondents December 22, 2023 [AKB] Item No.1 The present writ application has been preferred by the petitioner praying for necessary direction upon the respondent authorities to consider the case of the petitioners for regularization in the respective posts against which they are working for last more than 17 years, 13 years, 12 years, 12 years and 12 years respectively. The petitioner has further prayed for necessary orders directing the respondent authorities to frame a scheme and regularize the services of the writ petitioners in terms of the said scheme within a period of specified period of time.

Learned counsel for the respondent submits that the present case relates to the employment of the petitioner on contractual basis and as such it is the Central Administrative Tribunal which according to Section 3 (q) has the jurisdiction to hear this matter first. On the other hand the learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the authority of the Tribunal has been laid down under Section 14 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 and the petitioners do not qualify to have their matter heard by the Tribunal.

Learned counsel for the respondent has also placed an order passed by the Tribunal, wherein the petitioners were on the same footing as the present petitioners and the Central Administrative Tribunal has admitted their original application for hearing. The said case referred to relates to OA 351/1219/2023 pending before the Central Administrative Tribunal (Kolkata Bench), Circuit at Port Blair. Applicants in the said Original Application were working as teacher on contractual basis under the State project of 'Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan' (SSA) and the said applicants had prayed for necessary reliefs before the tribunal.

In the present case the petitioners have been given contractual engagement in a project by the State Project Director, Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) which is a Government of India Flagship programe for achievement of universalisation of elementary Education in a time bound manner. The said programe has its own scheme, which lays down the rules and responsibilities of key district functionaries and covers all other projects and scheme under its umbrella. It thus appears that there is a scheme, already in force. As the principal prayer of the petitioners is for regularization in respect of their respective posts under a project which is a project under the Government of India, the petitioners are to first approach the Central Administrative Tribunal for their reliefs, if any. The project under which the petitioners have been engaged on contract, is under the control of the Govt. of India and thus qualifies as per Section 3 (q) of the Administrative Tribunal Act, 1985.

As discussed above, the tribunal has also admitted such applications for hearing.

Accordingly the writ petition is disposed of with the direction to the writ petitioners to approach the Central Administrative Tribunal, Kolkata Bench at Port Blair. (Shampa Dutt (Paul), J.)