Interim stay on recruitment of ambulance drivers

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has issued an interim injunction prohibiting the Tamil Nadu government from filling up the ambulance driver vacancies without regularizing or absorbing the temporary drivers who have 10 years of continuous service.

A total of 65 petitioners moved the Madras High Court (MHC) seeking permanent employment as ambulance and other drivers in the health and family welfare department of Tamil Nadu.

If the authorities of health and family welfare are permitted to fill up the existing regular pay scale vacancies of ambulance drivers, it would set grave prejudice and irreparable injustice will be meted out to the petitioners, the court, presided over by Justice M S Ramesh, declared.

“The authorities are refusing to grant regularization of service to the petitioners or absorbing the petitioners in the regular vacancies, considering the long service of more than 10 years rendered by the petitioners as well as the Covid-19 pandemic duty done by the petitioners for more than three years continuously”, observed the Justice.

Further, Justice Ramesh directed the authorities to regularize the service of the petitioners or absorb them in existing vacancies. An injunction of order was issued to the authorities from discontinuing or terminating the service of the petitioners.

The petitioner’s counsel highlighted that all the petitioners have served as temporary staff for ten years and requested regular employment with their family circumstances in mind. They have been continuously working throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, but no favourable steps have been taken by the authorities.

The petitioners were continuously working during the Covid-19 pandemic duty and the minister and authorities were declaring in the public domain that all health workers will be given preference in regular employment, said the counsel. Hence they were hopeful of being regularized.

However, till date, no favourable steps have been taken by the authorities. Meanwhile, the government is taking hasty steps to fill up more than 800 driver vacancies with new drivers for obvious reasons, noted the counsel.