Imphal, April 11: The Supreme Court, acting on a Special Leave Petition (SLP), has quashed the earlier ruling of the Guwahati High Court that asked the State Government to regularise 198 Work-Charge employees in the Electricity Department.

Justice SB Sinha and Markandey Katju of the apex court passed the order on April 9 following the SLP filed by the State Government.

According to case dossiers, these employees who were engaged in the Department as Muster Roll had moved the Supreme Court in 1991 and got themselves upgraded to WorkCharge employees, obviously on the basis of an order passed by the apex Court.

The Work-Charge employees filed a case before the High Court in 1997 to regularise their service but the case was disposed off without any verdict.

Again these employees filed another petition before the same Court in which case the Court passed an order that their service should be regularised, mentioned the dossier.

Challenging the order, the State filed an appeal before a Division Bench of the High Court but it was dismissed.

After the dismissal, the State filed the Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court.

It may be mentioned here that in view of the Uma Devi case, the Supreme Court, through its orders, had established that the State does not have the power to frame a policy for conversion or regularisation of Muster Roll/Casual/Work-Charge/Adhoc employees.

The State also has no power to appoint in violation of the constitutional scheme of the employment and procedure prescribed by the relevant recruitment rules framed under Article 309.

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