Faulting the hereditary recruitment system being adopted by the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) on Thursday, the Hyderabad High Court struck down the order issued by the management in December last year. The company has also issued guidelines facilitating appointment of heirs of those quit service under Voluntary Retirement Scheme.
Aggrieved by the SCCL order, a person from Godavarikhani filed a writ petition in the High Court stating that some 30,000 jobs were grabbed by the heirs of the former employees rendering gross injustice to the unemployed youth in the State. On behalf of the State government, Advocate General pleaded before the court that on some 5,000 heirs of former employees had applied for the posts and no injustice was rendered to the unemployed youth.
However, the High Court differed with the argument of the Advocate General and struck down the SCCL order which was contrary to the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court.
It may be mentioned here that the hereditary appointments system which was withdrawn in 1998 by then Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was revived in November last year on the instructions of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to facilitate jobs to the heirs of SCCL employees. The Board of Directors, under the chairmanship of SCCL Managing Director N. Sridhar, took the decision reviving the heir job system. Employees, who are aged between 48 and 59 years by October 11, 2016, were eligible to apply for jobs to their kin – the employee’s son, son-in-law or brother who is between 18 and 35 years of age. However, the SCCL’s decision was challenged through a Public Interest Litigation by a citizen, saying it would curtail the Right to Life as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. The TRS government had revived the system as part of its election promise.
The SCCL company has already accepted thousands of applications from the employees to transfer their jobs to their respective kin. As the son-in-law is allowed to take up the heir job, most employees have already settled their daughters’ marriages by promising grooms the heir job in the company. (NSS)