Ranchi. The Jharkhand High Court has provided relief to nine employees who had been working on a contractual basis for a long period in the Engineering Cell of the Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare Department. The court has directed the department to reinstate the employees and complete the process for their regularisation.

The matter was heard before Justice Deepak Roshan. The court also quashed the August 14, 2024 departmental order that had rejected the employees’ request for regularisation. According to the court’s direction, the employees are to be reinstated and the formal regularisation process completed within six weeks of receiving a copy of the order.

According to the petitioners, the employees had served continuously in the department for more than 10 years. Their appointments were made between 2004 and 2008 on different posts, including typists, office assistants, clerks, drivers and pump operators.

It was stated that the employees were paid honorariums until January 2017. They were subsequently stopped from working without any formal order. After they did not receive relief at the departmental level, the employees approached the High Court.

Before the court, the petitioners referred to their long period of continuous service and legal provisions relating to regularisation. The court set aside the departmental decision and directed that the employees be taken back into service and that the regularisation process be taken forward.

The High Court’s order provides relief to the nine employees who had worked for years on a contractual basis in the Engineering Cell of the Health Department. The department will now have to take the necessary administrative steps within the prescribed timeframe in accordance with the court’s order.