Regularisation right survives employee death, Allahabad High Court rules

The Story in Brief

The Allahabad High Court has ruled that a deceased employee’s right to be considered for regularisation does not end with his death but survives through legal heirs. Justice Indrajeet Shukla directed the Uttar Pradesh government to treat Rifakat Hussain, a junior assistant who died in August 2012, as regularised from his eligibility date and to consider his son’s compassionate appointment claim under the 1974 Dying-in-Harness Rules. The court awarded Rs 50,000 costs, noting the authorities had repeatedly defied earlier court orders.

Hussain had served the Rural Engineering Department for 18 years. His name appeared at serial 58 in a 2005 seniority list for regularisation. After the state sanctioned 172 Group-C posts in June 2012, a selection committee was constituted, but Hussain died on August 11, 2012, before the process concluded in January 2013. Junior employees were regularised. The court held that the impugned March 2023 order was a repetition of already-rejected reasoning and amounted to contempt.