BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court directed the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to conduct an inquiry on how contract labourers are being hired by the Karnataka State Seeds Corporation Limited (KSSCL), a state government undertaking under the Agriculture Department.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order for the inquiry by the CAG within 12 months to know whether engaging contract labourers is a genuine transaction or a veiled methodology adopted by KSSCL and whether such a methodology goes against the principles of the welfare state as enshrined in the Preamble.
No procedure followed: HC
The court also confirmed an order of the Labour Court, which directed KSSCL to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation to the petitioner, C Sujatha, a resident of Meenakshi Nagar in the city. “The hire-and-fire policy, which has been resorted to by KSSCL without following any procedure does not bode well for the Corporation which is an instrumentality of the State,” the court observed.
The court said that it is rather shocking that from 2007 to 2015 when Sujatha was engaged as a Data Entry Operator (DEO) with KSSCL, she was on-boarded to different contractors. Sujatha, who was removed by KSSCL seven years ago as DEO, recently joined KEONICS, a service provider, which deputed her to e-Governance Department in March 2022.
Sujatha was appointed as DEO by KSSCL in January 2007 with a consolidated salary of Rs 5,000 per month. After having worked for some time, she was deputed to the Agriculture Department in MS Building. She submitted an appeal to the principal secretary to regularise her services as done in the case of one of her juniors.
Though she was permitted to leave the office at 5.30 pm on June 26, 2015, she was removed from the service, saying she was not available when called for, during the legislative session.