An attempt by two contract employees’ to function as ‘medical officers’ in the Government Hospitals has been blocked by the Madras High Court.
Puducherry Government framed Pondicherry Health Service (Allopathy) Rules, 1998 for appointment to the post of General Duty Medical Officer which is a Group A post and the recruitment could be done only by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
Since regular selection would consume time, Government engaged the services of Medical Officers on contract basis without the knowledge or approval of UPSC. The contract employees were engaged as stopgap arrangement for 120 days.
Meanwhile, the government through UPSC initiated steps for direct recruitment. The contract employees applied for regular selection. The two doctors — Kaipash Ben T. Solangi and R. Selvi also have undergone the selection process on many occasions between 1997 and 2010.
While 47 contract employees successfully completed the selection process and got appointments as Medical Officers on regular basis through UPSC, the two contract employees failed to pass the written examinations on several occasions. The two approached the Central Administrative Tribunal for regularisation of jobs as Medical Officers.
They contended that wherever vacancies are available and whenever the service of a doctor is required in various hospitals like Government General Hospital, Puducherry, Government Maternity Hospital, Puducherry, Government General Hospital, Karaikal and that too in different units/departments in those institutions they are deputed.
According to them, they were forced to compete with fresh candidates and ultimately failed on several occasions. The tribunal without considering the nature of engagement and the failure of these contract employees to pass the recruitment tests conducted by the UPSC issued a positive direction for regularisation. Hence, the Government filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court challenging the order of the tribunal.
Setting aside the order of the tribunal, a division bench of Madras High Court comprising of Justices Satish K. Agnihotri and K.K. Sasidharan said, “The contract employees herein wanted to function as Medical Officers. Even though they worked for years together, both of them failed in the examination conducted by the UPSC on several occasions. The patients wanted only expert doctors for treatment. Similar is the case of teachers. Half-baked teachers and Medical Officers would be a threat to the society. While considering the question of regularisation the Tribunal should bear in mind the nature of post. A vast majority of people are waiting for opportunity to compete for public employment. The acceptance of the claim for regularisation by courts and tribunals would negate the right of others.”
The Bench also made its position clear that the directions in cases of R. Srinivasan and L. Malini, ad hoc lecturers and similar other matters for one time regularisation would not operate as a binding precedent. In short, courts and tribunals should not treat those directions as law declared by the court. The tribunal henceforth should not issue direction for regularisation/retrospective regularisation on the basis of those directions, the Bench stated.
