Page No.# 1/4 GAHC010283602025 2026:GAU-AS:6395- DB THE GAUHATI HIGH COURT (HIGH COURT OF ASSAM, NAGALAND, MIZORAM AND ARUNACHAL PRADESH) Case No. : WP(C)/494/2026 THE UNION OF INDIA REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY TO THE GOVT. OF INDIA, DEPARTMENT OF POSTS, NEW DELDHI-1. 2: THE CHIEF POSTMASTER GENERAL ASSAM CIRCLE MEGHDOOT BHAWAN GUWAHATI781001. 3: THE DIRECTOR OF POSTAL SERVICES O/0 THE CHIEF PMG MEGHDOOT BHAWAN GUWAHATI-781001. 4: THE SUPERINTENDENT OF POST OFFICES NALBARI-BARPETA DIVISION NALBARI DIST-NALBARI ASSAM-781335. 5: THE INSPECTOR OF POST OFFICE PATACHARKUCHI SUB-DIVISIONPATI ISALA P.O.- PATHSALA-781315 VERSUS ALAKA KALITA TALUKDAR , GDSMC BARBHANG B.O, R/O VILLAGE- P.O.- MARIPUR ANANDAPUR, P.S.-PATACHARKUCHI, DIST-BARPETA, ASSAM, PIN-781329. Page No.# 2/4 For the petitioner/appellant(s) : Mr. B. Chakraborty, Advocate For the Respondent(s) : Mr. A. N. Ahmed, Advocate –B E F O R E – HON’BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. ASHUTOSH KUMAR HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN DEV CHOUDHURY 11.05.2026 (Ashutosh Kumar, CJ) We have heard Mr. B. Chakraborty, learned Central Government Counsel for the petitioner/Union of India & others, and Mr. A.N. Ahmed, learned counsel for the respondent. By the present writ petition, the petitioners/Union of India has posed a challenge to the judgment dated 23.05.2025, passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Guwahati Bench (hereinafter referred to as “Tribunal”) in O.A. No. 282/2022; whereby a direction has been issued to the Postal authorities for considering the case of the respondent for regularizing her services, who is a widow and who was temporarily engaged as a Gramin Dak Sevak Mail Carrier (GDSMC) on compassionate ground after her husband’s death. The contention raised on behalf of the petitioner/Union of India is that regardless of the fact that the employment of the respondent was temporary/part-time under the Gramin Dak Seval (Conduct and Engagement) Rules, 2011 and its later amendment in the year 2020, such a direction has been issued by the Tribunal. It may be noted that the husband of the respondent had died in Page No.# 3/4 harness while working as a Daily Wage contractual worker under a work order to assist the mail office. He was not appointed to any substantive post. However, after his death, the respondent was engaged as a temporary GDSMC at Barbang Branch Office, on humanitarian ground, specifically indicating that it was only a temporary engagement, which could end at any time. Later, when the engagement of the respondent was terminated in the year 2014, she approached the Tribunal and such termination order was interfered with by the Tribunal and she was allowed to continue temporarily till the time a regular recruitment process was undertaken by the department. The respondent continues even today on temporary basis and has spent several years thereby. In the meanwhile, the respondent had again approached the Tribunal by filing O.A. No. 282/2022, seeking regularization of her services. Vide the impugned order, the Tribunal, after quoting passages from the judgment of the Supreme Court in Jaggo vs. Union of India and others, 2024 SCC Online SC 3826, directed the department to consider the case of the respondent for regularization, considering her long period of service. Mr. Chakraborty, while assailing the order of the Tribunal, very fairly submitted that pursuant to the order passed by the Tribunal, the matter has been referred to the authorities concerned for final consideration of the case of the respondent, but he is apprehensive that the conclusions arrived at by the Tribunal would be construed by the authorities as a direction for regularization of the services of the respondent. We, therefore, in all fitness of things, deem it appropriate to modify the order of the Tribunal to the extent that the direction contained in the Page No.# 4/4 impugned order for considering the case of the respondent would be understood to mean a decision in that regard, as per the law. With the afore-noted modification in the impugned order passed by the Tribunal, this writ petition is disposed off with the trust and hope that a decision shall be taken in that regard by the department, which shall be communicated to the respondent forthwith. JUDGE CHIEF JUSTICE Comparing Assistant