SHIMLA: The High Court of H.P. while dismissing a petition challenging the order of discontinuation of the services and contractual employment of the petitioner, has imposed a cost of Rs.20, 000/- upon the petitioner and has directed to deposit the cost with the Deputy Commissioner, Nahan, within a period of two month.
A Division Bench comprising the Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua passed these orders on the petition, filed by a contractual employee deployed in the office of the Deputy Commissioner, District Sirmaur, as Data Entry Opertor, through NIELIT, on outsource basis and joined as such on 5.11.2014. Her contract was thereafter renewed from time to time and as per the latest contract executed in September, 2019, her services were to be continued upto September, 2020. However, her contract was discontinued vide order dated 07.01.2020. She has prayed for quashing and setting aside the said order and for directing the respondent to continue her services and contractual employment on same terms and conditions.
During the course of hearing, it was contended on behalf of the respondents, that the services of the petitioner were discontinued due to her continous indifferent behaviour and indiscipline in working, despite various verbal and written directions issued to her and moreover various complaints were also received against her. However, the petitioner has not controverted any of the allegations set out against her in the replies by the respondents.
The Court observed that discipline is the hallmark of every employee, and thus the punishment handed over to the petitioner is fully justified and no lenient view can be taken is such cases where the subordinate official misbehaves with her regular employees including senior employees of the Collectorate despite being appointed as an outsource employee. The Collectorate is an office which is probably most visited office in a Distirct and therefore, it can ill-afford to have such employees.
The Court observed that because of such false and incoherent pleas by the parties, the judicial system in the country is choked and such litigants consume courts' time for a wrong cause. The Court further observed that efforts are made by the parties to steal a march over their rivals by resorting to false and incoherent statements made before the Court, which is the abuse of the process of the Court as the intent of the petitioner is to decieve and mislead the Court that too by taking shelter of falsehood, misrepresentation and suppression of facts in the Court proceedings. The Court said that it is required to maintain strictness, vigilance over the abuse of the process of the Court and curb such tendencies with iron hands.