MAZHAR ALAM KHAN MIANKHEL, J.---The petitioner, a contract employee, vide notification dated 4- 9-2002 for a period of one year whereafter his period of contract remained extending. Lastly on 12- 3-2008, his contract was extended for a further period of three years or till arrival of selectees of N.- W.F.P. Public Service Commission whichever is earlier.
2. The petitioner herein has sought for issuance of an appropriate writ for directing the respondents to regularize his contract service under N.-W.F.P. Civil Servants (Amendment) Act, 2005 as services of other similarly placed contract employees were regularized and he be treated alike.
3. Learned counsel for the petitioner while referring to a decision of this Court in Writ Petition No,1510 of 2007 submitted that services of many contract employees of different departments have since been regularized on the basis of judgments given by this Court in a number of cases. The petitioner being entitled to be treated alike, who without any justification is the victim of discrimination by the respondents.
4. The record of the case reveals that the above referred writ petition i.e, 1510 of 2007 along with a good number of other writ petitions was allowed on the basis of previous precedents of this Court, whereby services of contract employees of different departments of N.-W.F.P. Government were ordered to be regularized. The learned Advocate-General in the circumstances had no words to counter the situation and had no explanation to justify the discriminatory treatment faced by the petitioner at the hands of concerned officials of the Health Department.
5. The provisions of section 19 of N.-W.F.P Civil Servants Act, 1973 were substituted by section 2 of the N.-W.F.P. Civil Servants (Amendment) Act, 2005, N.-W.F.P. Act, IX of 2005. The subsection (2) of the newly added section 19 reads as under:--- "Section 19(1) ...................................................................
(2) A person though selected for appointment in the prescribed manner to a service or post on or after the 1st day of July, 2001, till the commencement of the said Act, but appointment on contract basis, shall, with effect from the commencement of the said Act, be deemed to have been appointed on a regular basis. All such persons and the persons appointed on regular basis to a service or post in the prescribed manner after the commencement of the said Act shall, for all intents and purposes be civil servant, except for the purpose of pension or gratuity. Such a civil servant shall, in lieu of pension and gratuity, be entitled to receive such amount contributed by him towards the Contributory Provident Fund, along with the contributions made by Government to his account in the said fund, in the prescribed manner: ' Provided that in the event of death of such a civil servant, whether before or after retirement his family shall be entitled to receive the said amount, if it has already not been received by such deceased civil servant."
The plain reading of this subsection (2) would reveal that all such contract employees selected for appointment in the prescribed manner on or after 1st day of July, 2001, till the commencement of the amendment Act ibid shall, for all intents and purposes would be civil servants appointed on regular basis. It simply means that their services would be regularized by operation of law and issuance of notification/order in this regard would just be a formality. In presence of such a clear provision of law, we are unable to understand as to what is the impediment which makes the concerned departmental authorities to avoid the compliance of such a simple and clear mandate of law and what apparently appears is the negligence simpliciter of the concerned authorities or they in their wisdom consider it to be a charitable relief to be given by them to the needy whereas it is a right provided by a Statute which they are bound to extend to the person entitled for the same and it has nothing to do with their likes and dislikes.
6. We see no reason and justification as to why the petitioner is being treated differently when this Court in a couple of writ petitions has come forward and stepped in for the rescue of such aggrieved persons. So, the petitioner herein, in absence of anything to the contrary is also entitled to be treated alike. Hence, we have no option but to allow this petition in terms of Writ Petition No,1510 of 2007 and it is held that the service of the petitioner be regularized in view of the provision of newly added section 19(2) as substituted by section 2 of the N.-W.F.P Civil Servants (Amendment) Act (IX) 2005, and for the purpose of preparing his service book/record, the appointing authorities of the petitioner may issue formal order with regard to his seniority and other relevant particulars required to be entered therein. The needful be done positively by the all concerned as early as possible but not later than one month. Needless to mention about the creation of contributory provident fund by the concerned authorities as provided by the Act, for the benefit of such employees as is required by the above provisions of law.