LHC sets aside Patwaris notification

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday set aside a notification of district government and reversed de-regularisation of over dozen patwaris with a direction to the deputy commissioner to decide the matter afresh after affording opportunity of personal hearing to the petitioners.

Muhammad Amin and other patwaris contended through their counsel that they had been working as regular employees for the last 11 years. However, they said the government, one fine morning, changed their status as contract employees without issuing them any prior notice or hearing their point of view.

The counsel argued before the court that the law did not allow changing nature of the employment of regular employees. He said the deputy commissioner Lahore issued a vague notification and declared the petitioners contractual employees.

Deputy Commissioner Saleha Saeed appeared before the court and stated that senior member Board of Revenue had termed the regularisation of the petitioners illegal. She said the petitioners had been regularised on different points of times.

However, Justice Sajid Mahmood Sethi asked the deputy commissioner that under what law the government had the power to condemn anyone unheard. The judge observed that the impugned order of the government had been passed without meeting the fundamental rights of the petitioners enshrined in the Constitution.

The judge set aside the impugned notification and directed the deputy commissioner to decide the matter of the petitioners strictly in accordance with law and after affording opportunity of personal hearing to them.