Stay on recruitment of Tangedco gangmen vacated

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy withdrew the stay following Advocate General Vijay Narayan’s submission that the recruitment of 5,000 new gangmen would not affect the contract workers, as the government has no intention of curtailing their services. 

He also submitted that due process of law was followed and that 70 per cent of the selection process, including physical endurance test, was completed. 

Based on this, the bench said: “This order is passed an interim measure and the selection process initiated in 2019 will be given effect to subject to the outcome of the writ petitions. Fresh appointment letters may be issued. Contractual workers selected may be engaged. Those already engaged as contractual workers should not be removed.” 

The plea was posted to be taken up four weeks after the summer vacation. 

In March 2019, Tangedco had announced the recruitment of 5,000 gang mazdoors following which the contract workers moved more than 500 petitions challenging the it. They had contended that they have been working for the past 10 to 15 years doing the same job as that of gang mazdoors. Instead of regularising them, Tangedco had gone with the recruitment of 5,000 new workers ignoring those deployed on contract basis.