The High Court has ruled that if class-IV employees in the Health Department are found to have been appointed illegally, they will be required to refund their entire salary, along with interest, to the department.
The Division Bench, comprising Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice M.A. Chowdhary, addressed a series of petitions filed by the Health Department challenging a decision by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) that directed the department to pay salaries to hundreds of employees for their periods of service.
The court stipulated that any salary payments made to these employees, as per the CAT’s orders, will be conditional on the employees providing an undertaking. This undertaking must state that if an inquiry conducted by the department determines their appointments to be illegal, they will refund the entire amount received, along with interest at 6% per annum.
The court noted that an inquiry into the legality of the employees’ appointments has yet to be conducted. Therefore, until it is conclusively established whether their appointments were forged, fraudulent, or illegal, the payment of their salaries for the time they have worked cannot be halted.
These employees were appointed to various class-IV positions before 2010. However, in 2012-13, a report by the Directorate of Audit and Inspection highlighted that many of these appointments were made without following proper selection procedures, rendering them illegal.
In response, the Health Department formed District and Divisional Level Committees to investigate these appointments. The Committees confirmed that many of the appointments were indeed illegal and outside the established procedure. Consequently, the Administrative Department of Health decided to terminate the services of these employees and sought approval to take legal action.
Despite this, the employees sought the court’s intervention to prevent any action against them. As a result, the department was restrained from proceeding with its planned actions. Subsequently, the department stopped the salaries of these employees and filed a batch of petitions with the CAT.
The report from the Directorate of Audit and Inspections, J&K, Srinagar, revealed that 2,274 employees were appointed illegally across various districts. The Health Services Director constituted District and Divisional Level Committees to examine the audit report and the appointments of these employees, leading to the current judicial proceedings.
