The Kerala High Court has issued an order to stop the proceedings to regularise temporary employees in the various Kerala organisations. The order has been issued based on a plea filed by the PSC rank holders who had been protesting the LDF government’s decision.
The order will pertain to the institutions as mentioned in the plea — KILA, Women’s Commission, KELTRON, Forest Industries (Travancore) Limited, Kerala Bureau of Industrial Promotion. The High Court noted that the organisations would continue the status of employment as on the date of the Court order. Meanwhile, the Court has also ordered the Kerala government and the mentioned organisations to file their replies on the matter within a week.
Earlier, while considering the petition filed by the Youth Congress, the Kerala High Court asked if there is any rule to regularise the temporary staff in public sector companies. The plea stated that the government is placing people of their choice in public sector companies, corporates when PSC candidates are waiting for the job.
On February 15, Kerala HC had stayed the Kerala government’s move to regularise temporary employees of Kerala Bank. Amidst the ongoing protest, the government’s move was to regularise 1,850 contract employees. Kerala Bank’s board of directors had scheduled to convene a meeting on Tuesday.
The verdict was based on a plea filed by a Kannur native, who is also a candidate in the PSC rank list, questioning the government’s action. The government had argued that there was no plan to regularise temporary employees in Kerala Bank. However, the petitioner produced letters relating to the regularisation move. The HC also considered the contention that the employees in the posts, which were not under the Public Service Commission, were being made permanent.
Meanwhile, in the wake of strengthening protests against irregular appointments in Kerala, the state government had decided to stop the regularisation of temporary employees in various departments. However, they have also noted that while the regularisation has been halted, they will not cancel the appointments made until now. Moreover, the protests were withdrawn after the cabinet promised positive actions after “discussing with the election commission” and the opposition parties pointed out that it was a strategy to “cheat the rank holders”. The Civil Police Officer rank holders have not withdrawn their protests.
According to reports, a large number of potential candidates for regularisation are under the consideration of the government. Earlier, a cabinet meeting had decided to regularise nearly 200 temporary employees. The opposition in Kerala has alleged that the state has already regularised those they wanted. They have demanded further investigation into the regularisation done until now, as they allege that the CPM government has picked from a list those favourable to the LDF.
