Contract staff can't be regularised directly: CAT

The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has ruled that the employees on contract cannot be regularised directly as they will have to also appear in test with other candidates for the regular employment.

A Bench headed by Justice Ranjeet V More and member Mohammad Jamshed rejected an appeal of the nursing staff working in the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for over 10 years and approved their removal from the service.

It quoted a Supreme Court ruling that the regular employments cannot be stalled on the demand of the contract employees. It, however, said the contract employees should be given relief in their age.

The nurses were engaged on contract of three months in 2009 and they were granted extension for 10 years. An advertisement published in 2019 resulted in the employment of the regular nurses in 2022, resulting on removal of 151 nurses on contract. Forty-two of them challenged it in CAT, despite the contract stipulated their removal on one month's notice.