The Himachal Pradesh High Court has ordered the regularization of bill-based temporary employees on the same basis as daily wage workers.
Justice Ajay Mohan Goel, in his decision regarding the case of Ram Singh, stated that the distinction made by the Forest Department between daily wage workers and bill-based employees violates Article 14 of the Constitution.
“Daily wage workers and bill-based employees both provide similar services to the department,” Justice Goel observed. Despite undergoing screening for regularization twice, the petitioner and similarly situated employees were not regularized, even though they worked more than 240 days each year.
The High Court directed the Forest Department to regularize the petitioner within six weeks according to the state government’s regularization policy dated April 22, 2020. However, the financial benefits provided to the petitioner will be limited to three years from the date of filing the petition.
