Greeva Garg –
Published on: August 13, 2021 at 16:48 IST
The Supreme Court of India has upheld the order passed by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court permitting by the Jammu and Kashmir Government against casual labourers working in sheep breeding farms.
The appeal was to disengage need base labourers from performing duties in different Sheep Breeding Farms, for being temporary in nature, as initial engagement order was passed for a period of 89 days.
Waheed Ahmed Bhat, the petitioner stated before the Apex Court that, the disengagement orders were not speaking orders and therefore, violative of Article 14 as it was arbitrary.
The division bench comprising of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Hrishikesh Roy observed that, “In light of the plight of casual labourers in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, who were engaged on need basis and disengaged subsequently, the Government should consider providing similar employment.”
The Top Court noted that it cannot be imposed on the Government to employ people and that there was no right or claim for employment in this case.
The present Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenged the final order and Judgment dated January 29, 2021, passed by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court while deciding an intra court appeal in a batch of matters considered the issue in writ petition filed by people who were engaged on a need basis in various farms of the department of Sheep Husbandry, Kashmir in 2014.
Vide the order, the High Court had observed that, “The engagement of writ petitioners was temporary and not on any substantive post carrying a regular pay scale, the engagement without following any due process of selection, it would justify their disengagement. Hence, it was held that there was no right vested in the writ petitioners to continue in the department indefinitely.”