PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has dismissed the writ petitions filed by the contractual Patient Care Attendants (PCAs) working in the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour (IPHB).
The Division Bench said that the contractual workers have no right to claim regularisation in service.
The 25 petitioners had stated that they were not selected and questioned the selections and appointments to the posts of PCAs. The petitioners who had prayed for regularisation of their services had also brought to the notice of the High Court the promise made by the Chief Minister during COVID-19 pandemic that they were true COVID warriors and that the government would regularised them. However, the High Court observed that the petitioners had not placed any material on record about the so-called promises made to them by the Chief Minister about the regularisation of their services. Even the press releases speak about some priority to the persons who worked during the pandemic whenever job vacancies arise in the Health Department, it said.
The Director/Dean of IPHB in his affidavit denied that any such promises were ever given and further pleaded that it is a settled legal position that even if the government wants to regularise persons like the petitioners, the same cannot be done since the Constitution does not permit such an exercise. The return also states that the government does not operate or work on such oral assurances.
