Sikkim High Court upholds State government's 'One Family One Government Job' scheme

The Sikkim High Court recently upheld the State government's "One Family One Government Job" scheme stating that it has no doubt about the bonafides of the scheme and it is beneficial for the citizens [Henna Subba and Ors vs State of Sikkim]..A division bench of Chief Justice Biswanath Somadder and Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai noted that over 13,000 citizens got jobs under this scheme which was initiated by former chief minister Pawan Chamling."More than 13,000 citizens residing in the State of Sikkim have got employment in the process. As such, the bona fides of the exercise undertaken under the Scheme cannot be held to be suspect since its object and purpose was to provide one family one job," the Court said.The bench further opined that it cannot at this belated stage forensically analyse the entire recruitment process, especially because then all those, who have got jobs will have to be made party to the present proceedings."That apart and in any event, the beneficial nature of the Scheme cannot be doubted and examined at this stage purely on the basis of technicalities as provided under the Sikkim Government Service Rules, 1974," the Court added. .The Court was seized of a clutch of petitions filed by highly qualified yet unemployed youth, who objected to the “One Family One Job” policy decision of the State Government, which, according to them, failed to comply with any statutory provision. Responding to their plea, Umesh Sunam, a Joint Secretary at the Department of Personnel, Administrative Reforms & Training, Government of Sikkim, filed an affidavit stating that the scheme was launched by the former Chief Minister (CM) after completing his tour of all the 31 constituencies in the State."During the said tour, it was observed that the main grievance of the people of Sikkim was lack of employment in government service," the bench noted. There were thousands of applications by the citizens but the same couldn't be considered and accordingly the then CM decided to conduct walk-in interviews for the existing vacancies, the Court added. Therefore, the affidavit stated that the then government decided that only applications of those applicants who did not have any family members in government service would be considered, which led to the conceptualisation of the present scheme in question."A bare perusal of the explanation provided by the official, in the affidavit reveals that while the the Sikkim Government Service Rules, 1974, may not have been strictly adhered to by observing all technical requirements as mandated by the said Rules, there has been substantial compliance....However, the State of Sikkim is directed to ensure that in all future recruitment process, it adheres to the relevant statutory laws and Rules scrupulously and meticulously so that eyebrows are not raised unnecessarily or accusatory fingers pointed towards the State, while welfare and beneficial Schemes – such as the one before us – are sought to be implemented by the State or its agencies," the Court said. .Senior Advocate A Moulik and Advocates KD Bhutia and Ranjit Prasad appeared for the petitioners. Advocate General Vivek Kohli and Government Advocates YW Rinchen and Pema Bhutia represented the State authorities..[Read Judgment]