Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday upheld the interim order passed by a single bench, staying recruitment of contractual staff in fast track courts and family court in the District Judgeship of North 24 Parganas.
The district and sessions judge of North-24 Parganas appealed against the single-bench order in the petition filed by the West Bengal Court Employees’ Association.It was submitted that due to an interim stay, recruitment to vacant posts continued to remain empty, leading to operational constraints there.
The grievance of the writ petitioners prima facie appeared to be correct as promotional posts were being sought to be filled up by contractual engagements, division bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam said. The bench observed that by making contractual employment in promotion posts, it would demoralise the workforce who aspired and desired to be considered for promotion to higher posts.
Sivagnanam, on a similar line as the single bench, questioned whether there had not been a recruitment process for several years in the past. The single judge had further pointed out that in the absence of a recruitment process, to manage the functioning of district judiciary, contractual appointments were sought.
“As a high court, we are also concerned about the difficulties faced by the district judges and other judges in the various judgeships in Bengal. The situation in the high court is no better. Contractual engagement/appointments can be made in exceptional circumstances, where there is genuine difficulty in not being able to fill sanctioned posts. Whenever proposals are sent for creation of posts, invariably the reply received by the high courtfrom the state govt is granting permission for contractual appointees,” the CJ said.