TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1999 (8) TMI 808
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.... that they must be treated as employees of the Central Government and should be given full status of permanent Central Government employees on the expiry of 360 days of joining their service besides regular pay-scales with avenues for promotion, pension, provident fund and other service benefits on the basis of their length of service. 2. The learned Single Judge of the Calcutta High Court ruled that writ petitioners/respondents Nos. 2 to 64 herein should be given the full status of permanent Central Government employees on the expiry of 360 days of their joining the service. However, the learned Judge restricted the arrears for a period of three years prior to the date of the said judgment. The learned Judge safeguarded the right with reference to their fitment in the appropriate scale and the benefit of promotion having due regard to the length of service. Likewise, the learned Judge ordered their entitlement for pension, provident fund, gratuity again with regard to their length of service. 3. Aggrieved by the order of the learned Single Judge, the appellants preferred an appeal to the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court. 4. The learned Judges, after carefully con....
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....mpanies (Court) Rules, 1959. It is also common ground that the Company Paid Staff had been discharging their duties and functions identical to those of the staff employed by the Central Government in the office of the official liquidator. The company paid staff moved the High Court seeking absorption on a regular basis. They brought to the notice of the Court that on an earlier occasion on 1-7-1978 similarly situated Company Paid Staff were absorbed as regularly paid staff. 6. The petition was opposed by the appellants (respondents before the High Court) contending that the company paid staff were not employed by the Government ; that their employment was of casual nature; that they were paid out of the funds of the companies in liquidation and not from the consolidated fund of India; that such appointments were made by the official liquidator to meet administrative exigencies to discharge, the functions entrusted to him as official liquidator and that, therefore, they cannot claim regularisation or absorption in the Government service. 7. The High Court, on the basis of the pleadings and arguments raised before it, considered two questions namely, (a) whether the continuous ....
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....eir respective dates of appointments as Estate Clerks. There was a further direction given by the Court to grant benefits of pay fixation and all admissible allowances to the Company Paid Staff. The arrears of salary and other allowances due to them on such regularisation shall be computed and paid without delay. There was a further direction to reckon the arrears from the date of the original petition. 8. Aggrieved by the decision of the High Court, the appellants have preferred this appeal. 9. Writ Petition (C) No. 473 of 1988 is preferred by the Company Paid Staff in the office of the official liquidator, High Court of Delhi. The petitioners claim that they are better qualified than the regularly appointed staff, their duty hours are more and they are assigned more onerous and tedious work under the threat of termination of their employment at any time. They are employed in a permanent office of the official liquidator and the duties which they are performing are not of transitory nature. Their claim for regularisation/absorption are not merely on the basis of their having completed more than 240 days, but on the basis of their proper selection and possession of requisite ....
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....dras High Court. 12. Before proceeding further, it is advantageous to have a minimal background fact relating to the origin of both the offices of the official liquidator and the court liquidator in the High Courts. We may at once point out that though section 38A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 provides for appointment of court liquidator in the matter of liquidation of banking companies, the office of the court liquidator was sanctioned only for the Calcutta High Court and it is stated that no other High Court has a Court Liquidator. Winding up and liquidation of business of companies had been viewed by the Government as an inevitable results in certain cases. The Companies Act, 1913 as well as 1956 provided for winding up of companies under the control and supervision of Courts except in the case of voluntary winding up, which is of insignificant in number. The matter of winding up of companies and securing public interest was vested with the High Court and the Central Government was expected to aid this power of winding up as part of sovereign functions of the State. Up to the period of 1949, the Legislature did not maintain any distinction between the banking and non-ba....
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....der liquidation. Those staff appointed by the Court liquidator under the orders of the High Court of Calcutta are the contesting respondents in Civil Appeal No. 5642 of 1994. 15. Let us now consider the case of the Company Paid Staff appointed by the Official Liquidator under the orders of the High Court. It may be noted that under the Companies Act, 1913 there was no post of official liquidator. Under 1913 Act, the matters relating to winding up of the company were administered by the Courts and the administration of the Companies was entrusted to the respective States. Different High Courts framed their own procedure and rules regarding winding up of the Companies. There was no uniformity in the matter among the High Courts in framing the Rules. It is only after the coming into force of the 1956 Act that uniform position has been brought upon. Under the 1956 Act, an official liquidator is appointed by the Central Government under section 448 of the Act. Under Article 309 of the Constitution, the Recruitment Rules were made for the post of official liquidator, the Assistant Official Liquidator and staff of the Company law board. Those rules were called 'Department of Company La....
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.... of the Official Liquidator; that they have been continuously without break working for a period ranging from 10 to 25 years; that they have been paid only a fixed salary without any benefit of pension, gratuity; that such employees appointed upto 1-7-1978 had been regularised by the Government ; that though the Central Government appreciated the human problem involved in these matters and came forward before the Kerala High Court to amicably settle the issue ultimately has shown an unsympathetic attitude and that in the light of the several judgments of the Supreme Court, the appointees are entitled to the regularisation and salaries as paid to the regular employees in the Office of the Official Liquidator at least from three years prior to the date of the judgment of the Single Judge of the Calcutta High Court and in the Kerala cases from the date of appointment. On the other hand, Mr. Malhotra, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the Union of India, submitted that the appointees were not appointed by the Government and they were not paid salaries from the consolidated fund. On the other hand, they were paid salaries from the concerned Companies under Liquidation. In certain ....
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....n the Department of Company Affairs. (ii)The second alternative that was discussed was to continue the present arrangement without absorption of these Company Paid Staff. In such a situation, their salaries and service conditions could suitably be revised by the Hon'ble Company Judges with reference to funds available with the OLs. in the various High Courts. According to information gathered, most of the OLs. attached to various High Courts have annual surpluses. The balances in the funds maintained by many OLs. are substantial; and (iii)The third option that was discussed was to grant them age relaxation and ask them to sit in the open competitive examination as a one time measure. This would give them a general opening not restricted to jobs in these two Departments. 15. The Government has considered the above three alternatives and is of the view that out of the said solutions, proposals at Nos. (ii) and (iii) of para 14 can be considered subject to the orders of this Hon'ble Court. 16. I further say and submit that the precedent of regularisation of the Company Paid Staff referred to in the judgment of the Hon'ble High Court relates to only those staff which was ab....