The Himachal Pradesh High Court held that the State and its functionaries cannot use unfair tactics to deny regularization to temporary employees who completed over eight years of service. The Court ruled that keeping workers in temporary roles like daily-wage or contract to avoid granting regular benefits is exploitative and unconstitutional. Petitioners, employed by Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) between 1994 and 2000, were terminated despite long service. After being reinstated through Labour Court orders, they were still denied regularization. Citing the case of Rishi v. HRTC, where a sweeper was regularized after eight years, they claimed equal treatment under Article 14. HRTC rejected their claims, arguing the Rishi judgment mentioned a specific date, while theirs did not. The Court called this reasoning absurd and held that similar cases deserve equal treatment.
It criticized HRTC for non-application of mind and stated that denial of regularization on arbitrary grounds violates the Constitution. The Court emphasized fairness in public employment and directed HRTC to regularize the petitioners and provide service benefits.
