1 2025:CGHC:37429-DB NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR WA No. 527 of 2025 1 - Smt. Bindu Choubey W/o Punrneshwar Choubey, Aged About 51 Years Presently Working As Placement Teacher In The Nagar Palika Nigam Higher Secondary School Ambikapur District - Surguja (C.G.) 2 - Amresh Kumar Mishra S/o Kapil Dev Mishra, Aged About 55 Years Presently Working As Placement Teacher In The Nagar Palika Nigam Higher Secondary School Ambikapur District - Surguja (C.G.) 3 - Smt. Anamika Pandey, W/o Lalit Pandey, Aged About 35 Years Presently Working As Placement Teacher In The Nagar Palika Nigam Higher Secondary Ambikapur District - Surguja (C.G.) 4 - - Ramkumar Soni, S/o Kapil Dev Soni, Aged About 42 Years Presently Working As Placement Teacher In The Nagar Nigam Higher Secondary School Ambikapur District - Surguja (C.G.) 5 - Smt. Smita Singh, D/o Jugal Kishore Singh, Aged About 33 Years Presently Working As Placement Teacher In The Nagar Palika Nigam Higher Secondary School Ambikapur District Surguja (C.G.) 6 - Sunil Kumar S/o Alam Sai Aged About 37 Years Presently Working As Placement Teacher In The Nagar Palika Nigam Higher Secondary School Ambikapur District Surguja (C.G.) 7 - Smt. Rupendra Kaur W/o Papindar Singh Aged About 43 Years Presently Working As Placement Teacher In The Nagar Palika Nigam Higher Secondary School Ambikapur District Surguja (C.G.) 8 - Manish Kumar Gupta S/o Arvind Gupta Aged About 41 Years Presently Working As Placement Teacher In The Nagar Palika Nigam Higher Secondary School Ambikapur District Surguja (C.G.) ... Appellant(s) versus 1 - The State Of Chhattisgarh Through Secretary, Urban Administration And Development Department, Mantralay, Mahanadi Bhawan, Raipur District - Raipur (C.G.) VEDPRAKASH DEWANGAN Digitally signed by VEDPRAKASH DEWANGAN Date: 2025.08.01 19:02:27 +0530 2 2 - The Director Urban Administration And Development Department, Raipur, District - Raipur (C.G.) 3 - The Collector Surguja Ambikapur, District - Surguja (C.G.) 4 - The Joint Director Urban Administration And Development Department Regional Office, Ambikapur, District - Surguja (C.G.) 5 - The Commissioner, Nagar Palika Nigam, Ambikapur, District - Surguja (C.G.) 6 - The Principal, Nagar Palika Nigam Higher Secondary School, Ambikapur District - Surguja (C.G.) 7 - The Principal Secretary, School Education Department, Mahanadi Bhawan, Raipur, District - Raipur (C.G.) 8 - The Joint Director, School Education, Ambikapur, District - Surguja (C.G.) 9 - The District Education Officer, District - Surguja (C.G.) ---- Respondents (Cause title taken from Case Information System) For Appellant(s) : Mr. Rajeev Shrivastava, Sr. Advocate along with Mr. Sushil Dubey, Advocate For Respondent(s)/State : Mr. Sangharsh Pandey, Govt. Advocate For Respondent No.5 : Mr. A.K. Pandey, Advocate Hon'ble Shri Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice Hon'ble Shri R avindra Kumar Agrawal, Judge Order on Board Per Ramesh Sinha, C.J. 31/07/2025 1. Heard on I.A. No. 2 of 2025, which is an application for condonation of delay in filing the present appeal. On due consideration, I.A. No. 2 of 2025 is allowed and delay of 04 days in filing the present writ appeal is condoned. 2. The present writ appeal has been filed by the writ appellants against the impugned order dated 01.05.2025, passed by learned Single Judge, in 3 WPS No. 3042 of 2025, whereby the writ petition filed by the petitioners/writ appellants has been dismissed. 3. The brief facts of the case are that, the petitioners were working as Placement Teachers/Staffs at Municipal Corporation Higher Secondary School, Ambikapur and they rendered their services for about 8–10 years. The claim of the petitioners is that, they have been appointed on the sanctioned posts for education work in the Municipal Corporation Higher Secondary School, Ambikapur vide memo dated 17.06.2016 and they continued in their service and the Municipal Corporation Higher Secondary School, Ambikapur has paid their salaries, however, from the month of May, 2022 their salaries have been stopped. The petitioners have filed WPS No. 1493 of 2023 before this Court, which was disposed of on 22.02.2023, directing the Municipal Corporation, Ambikapur to consider and decide the pending representations of the petitioners within the stipulated time frame. The petitioners have also filed a CONT No. 960 of 2023 before this Court for compliance of the order dated 22.02.2023. In the contempt proceedings, the respondent No.4 submitted its reply, in which they stated that on 06.11.2023, an order has been passed and the Municipal Corporation refused to make payment of the salaries to the petitioners on the ground that the petitioners/placement teachers/staffs were merged to the School Education Department and they are not liable to pay their salary. 4. The petitioners have filed another WPS No. 1861 of 2024 challenging the order dated 06.11.2023 and during pendency of the said writ petition, the Municipal Corporation, Ambikapur passed a resolution for taking teaching work from the petitioners and keep them continue in the 4 work. With respect to the salaries of the petitioners from month of May 2022, a revenue case was registered by the Collector, Surguja, in which a final order was passed on 25.03.2025 holding that the salary of the month of May, 2022 shall be paid by the Municipal Corporation, Ambikapur and from the month of June, 2022 it shall be paid by the District Education Officer, Ambikapur. Thereafter, the WPS No. 1861 of 2024 has been disposed of on 02.04.2025. Immediately thereafter, the respondent No.9 issued the impugned order dated 04.04.2025 directing the Municipal Corporation Higher Secondary School, Ambikapur not to take teaching work from the petitioners and stopped them from their work. It is also directed that the attendance of the petitioners in the school shall not be taken into consideration for any future service benefits, which was under challenge in the present writ petition. 5. After hearing the parties, on 01.05.2025, the learned Single Judge has dismissed the writ petition filed by the petitioners holding that the petitioners have no right to claim continuation of their services or regularization, as they are the placement teachers/staffs, hence the present writ appeal. 6. Learned Senior Advocate appearing for the writ appellants would vehemently submit that, the petitioners are well qualified and holding the requisition qualification for teaching having teaching experience of 18-20 years. They have been appointed on the sanctioned post of Teacher at Municipal Corporation Higher Secondary School, Ambikapur. The learned Single Judge has erred in considering that the appointment of the petitioners was not on the due selection process, whereas the petitioners have been appointed by the resolution passed in a meeting 5 of Mayer-in-Council, Municipal Corporation, Ambikapur and their services have been extended vide resolution dated 04.08.2023. They have been regularly paid their salaries through the bank account. They worked with the institution for about 8-10 years and settled in their life, however all of sudden, they have been removed from their services without affording any opportunity of hearing to them and without any inquiry, which is the clear violation of the principles of natural justice. Therefore, the impugned order is liable to be set-aside and the writ appellants are entitled to be continued in their services. 7. On the other hand, learned counsel appearing for the private respondents/State as well as Municipal Corporation, Ambikapur would support the impugned order and have submitted that after considering the entire facts and circumstances of the case and the nature of appointment of the petitioners, the learned Single Judge has rightly considered the issue involved in the case and passed the order on 01.05.2025, which needs no interference. 8. We have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the materials annexed with the writ appeal as well as the writ petition. 9. The writ appellants are claiming that their appointments are against the sanctioned posts and they are working against the regular sanctioned post of Teacher at Municipal Corporation Higher Secondary School, Ambikapur since long, but from perusal of the entire material produced in the writ petition, we do not find any document that the appointments of the petitioners are against the vacant sanctioned posts of Teachers/Staffs, whereas it transpires that the petitioners are placement 6 Teachers/Staffs appointed for teaching at Municipal Corporation Higher Secondary School, Ambikapur. In all the documents, it has been mentioned that the petitioners are employed as placement teachers/staffs. From the order dated 17.06.2016 (Annexure P/2) annexed with the writ petition, it clearly reveals that the advertisement was issued for appointment of the skilled/semi-skilled/unskilled labourers on placement at Municipal Corporation, Ambikapur, which includes the 06 posts of teachers and under the said order dated 17.06.2016, the petitioners were appointed. It transpires that there is no regular mode of appointment conducted by the Municipal Corporation, Ambikapur or the State Government. Further, from the document (Annexure P/12) annexed with the petition, in all where, the petitioners have been considered as placement employees at Municipal Corporation Higher Secondary School, Ambikapur. 10. The learned Single Judge has also considered that since the petitioners have not been appointed on the basis of due selection process, they have no right to claim continuation of their services or regularization, as they are the only placement teachers/staffs. The writ appellants could not demonstrate that the petitioners were appointed after following the due selection process, and therefore, the decision taken by the respondent authorities not to take further work from the petitioners, cannot be said to be arbitrary or erroneous exercise of its power. So far as the salary of the petitioners from the month of July 2022 to March 2025 is concerned, the learned Single Judge has also observed in its order that, the Collector, Surguja has already directed the authorities concerned vide order dated 28.03.2025 to make payment of salary to 7 the petitioners for the said period, therefore, there the issue of withholding the salary of the petitioners is also considered. 11. Upon perusing the impugned order, we noticed that the same has been rendered by the learned Single Judge with cogent and justifiable reasons. In an intra-court appeal, no interference is usually warranted unless palpable infirmities are noticed. Learned Single Judge while dismissing the writ petition by the impugned order has adverted to all the facts of the case. 12. We do not find any good ground to interfere with the finding recorded by learned Single Judge and the appeal being devoid of merits, liable to be and hereby dismissed. Sd/- Sd/- (Ravindra Kumar Agrawal) (Ramesh Sinha) Judge Chief Justice ved