State Not Bound To Retain Outsourced Lab Technicians After Change In Scheme Execution Model: : Rajasthan High Court

Rajasthan High Court held that once a scheme was substituted by a new scheme that changed its mode of execution, the State Government cannot be compelled to continue the services of manpower that was being rendered by an outsourcing agency. The bench of Justice Munnuri Laxman stated that in multiple cases protection was given to the interest of employees working under the manpower agency, but that protection was on the premises that one set of employee could not be replaced with another set merely because of change in agency. The Court observed that in the present matter, the situation was not such that the manpower agency was getting changed. Rather, under the new scheme, the requirement of taking services from a manpower agency itself was done away with. For context, the Court was hearing a bunch of petitions challenging termination of services by petitioners' who were working with the government through an outsourcing agency."There is no continuation of any manpower supplier distinctly. Now the previous procedure of execution of the scheme has been changed. The old scheme used to have infrastructure provided at the cost of the Government and the services of manpower were obtained from outsourcing agency, however, in the new scheme, the infrastructure and the manpower services are required to be provided by one entity. There is no borrowing of any manpower services by the respondentsAuthorities distinctly. If the request of the petitioners to be accepted, it would interference in the very policy decision and compelling the State to continue to create his own infrastructure instead of giving such an obligation to the private entity. In view of the mode of execution of the new scheme, we cannot compel the Government to continue with the old scheme, which will frustrate the very object of execution of the new scheme". The petitioners were working as lab technicians under a scheme as per which the infrastructure of the lab was created by the government, and only the services of the technicians were obtained through a manpower agency. This scheme was substituted by a new scheme under which the government had selected a particular lab which was required to provide both the infrastructure as well as the manpower services. Hence, the services of the employees who were working under old scheme, through an outsourcing agency, were terminated. It was argued by the petitioners that since they were recruited under sanctioned post under the scheme, their services should have been continued, even though there was a change in the mode of execution of the scheme. After hearing the contentions, the Court highlighted, “This Court in number of cases has been protecting the interest of an employees working under the manpower agency to continue such services, even if there was a change in the manpower agency. That protection was given on the premise that a one set of an employee cannot be replaced by another set of employee only on the ground that there is a change of manpower agency.”It was held that the present matter was different since there was no continuation of any manpower supplier distinctly.In this background, it was held that the Court could not compel the government to continue with the old scheme since that would frustrate the very object of execution of the new scheme. Accordingly, the petitions were dismissed. Title: Manish Dotasara v State of Rajasthan & Ors. and other connected petitions Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 168Click Here To Read/Download Order

State Not Bound To Retain Outsourced Lab Technicians After Change In Scheme Execution Model: : Rajasthan High Court

Nupur Agrawal

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