In a significant relief to thousands of Himachal Pradesh state government employees, Himachal Pradesh High Court has quashed the Himachal Pradesh Recruitment and Conditions of Service of Government Employees Act, 2024 in its entirety, deeming it unconstitutional.
A Division Bench of the High Court headed by Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Romesh Verma while disposing of a batch of 445 petitions on Saturday ruled that key provisions of the Act—Sections 3, 5, and 9—were contrary to the constitutional framework.
In its ruling the court averred, “The Act violated the constitution by attempting to override previous judicial decisions regarding service conditions, affecting thousands of employees”.
This matter pertained to hundreds of appeals filed by the state government employees wherein thousands of employees were appointed on contract basis under different categories by the state government after 2003 and later regularized.
The State government had passed the 2024 Act to avoid giving seniority, pension and other benefits by not counting the contract period in the tenure of the service.
The Bench directed the state government to grant payment of all dues and benefits to eligible employees within the period of three months.
