By Our Staff Reporter
Nainital, 18 Jun: Uttarakhand High Court today heard an appeal against the order issued dismissing the services of Assistant Accountants working in the Agriculture Department, who had been hired through UPNL. While hearing the case, the division bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Rakesh Thapliyal ordered the reinstatement of the dismissed employees and said that their service should be restored until a final decision is taken in the government’s special appeal pending before the Supreme Court (The case State Government vs. Kishan Singh). The next hearing in this case has been fixed for 28 August.
It may be recalled that Ajay Kanwal and 19 others hired by the Agriculture Department through the outsourcing agency, UPNL, as Assistant Accountants were dismissed earlier this year after the Government had issued a notification for permanent selection and employment on these posts through Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UKSSSC). This was challenged in the High Court through a petition, claiming that government had not given any preference to them while issuing the notification for recruitment on the posts of Assistant Accountants through UKSSSC though they had been working for years now on the posts. However, the single bench of the High Court did not provide them any interim relief. Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission cancelled the notification but their services were still terminated on 27 February as a fresh notification for these posts was issued, this time through the Uttarakhand State Public Service Commission.
The order of the single bench was challenged in the division bench by Ajay Kanwal and others by filing a special appeal. It was said in the special appeal that in Kundan Singh vs State Government, the Uttarakhand High Court has ordered the regularisation of the personnel working through UPNL and on which the Supreme Court issued a stay order on the appeal of the state government but the final decision of the Supreme Court is yet to come. After which the division bench has ordered the government to reinstate these personnel till a final judgement is delivered in Kundan Singh vs State Government case by the Supreme Court.
