The Himachal Pradesh High Court has directed Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Ltd (HPSEBL) to count the contractual service of Junior Office Assistants (JOAs) for seniority and other service benefits.
A Division Bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Ranjan Sharma said that employees appointed through the prescribed recruitment procedure and subsequently their services regularised without interruption were entitled to have their contractual service counted.
The court also directed the board to consider the eligible JOAs for promotion to Senior Assistant against vacancies 2024 onwards, after counting their contractual service.
The court ordered the company that annual increments for the contract period be taken into account for calculating the future salary and pension benefits, subject to the conditions specified in the judgment.
JOAs had filed petitions stating that their contractual service, which preceded the regularisation of their services, be counted for seniority and consequential benefits. The court allowed the petitions and directed the board that arrears be paid by December 31.
