No Replacement of One Contractual Employee by Another: Jharkhand High Court Upholds Protection to Long-Serving Appointee
L.P.A. No. 257 of 2025
By Navya Tiwari
The Jharkhand High Court declined to interfere with an order protecting a long-serving contractual employee, reiterating that one ad hoc or contractual employee cannot be replaced by another without just cause.
The matter arose in a Letters Patent Appeal filed by the State against a Single Judge’s decision which had quashed the termination of an employee and directed that he be allowed to continue in service until regular appointments were made. The State argued that since the respondent was only a contractual appointee, he had no enforceable right to continue in service. In response, the employee pointed out that he had served for over ten years and that his services were abruptly terminated soon after he sought regularisation, raising concerns about the fairness of the action.
The Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice M. S. Sonak and Justice Rajesh Shankar, found no merit in the State’s challenge. It noted that the record did not indicate that the termination was carried out to accommodate a regular appointee. Instead, the circumstances suggested that the discontinuation was either to replace the respondent with another contractual employee or was triggered by his request for regularisation.
The Court emphasized that such action lacks fairness and justification, particularly where the employee has rendered long years of service. It reaffirmed the settled principle that contractual arrangements cannot be used to arbitrarily rotate employees without progressing towards regular appointments.
Observing that the Single Judge had granted only limited protection—continuation in service until regular appointments are made, along with a direction to consider regularisation. The Division Bench held that the order was legally sound and did not warrant interference.
Accordingly, the appeal was dismissed.
