Outsourced Forest Staff Cannot Be Discontinued Over Mere Classification Under 'Wrong Salary Head': Uttarakhand High Court
Saahas Arora
11 Dec 2025 6:20 PM IST
The Uttarakhand High Court has granted relief to a slew of outsourced workmen (petitioners) of the Uttarakhand Forest Department— whose engagement was discontinued on the sole ground that there was a change in the salary head from which their wages were being drawn— directing the State Government to not discontinue the services of such workmen on such grounds.
The services of the petitioners— who were engaged through outsourcing in different divisions of Uttarakhand Forest Department (Respondent) since 2001, were discontinued vide a Government Order of 2023, only on the ground that there was a change in the salary head from which their wages were being drawn. The 2023 GO stated that the payment of the petitioners was done on wrong classification of the expenditure, which was against Point no.4 Chapter IV of the Budget Manual, and was thus a financial irregularity as per the State Government. It further stated that if any payment was made to the petitioners by the Department, the payment so made shall be recovered from the salary/pension of the concerned Drawing/Disbursing Officer.
Aggrieved by the discontinuance of services and the issuance of the 2023 GO, the petitioners sought directions to– set aside the impugned order and permit them to continue in service, as well as enforcement of earlier Government Orders recognising their engagement and directing clearance of their arrears.
Disposing of a batch of writ petitions, Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari observed,
“The writ petitions are, accordingly, disposed of by providing that engagement of petitioners shall not be discontinued only on the aforesaid ground, namely that head under which their wages are to be drawn has been changed and petitioners shall be permitted to serve, if work and post is available in the concerned Division.”
Background
The Senior Officers of the Forest Department had, in previous proceedings, expressed their difficulty in accommodating the payments of the petitioners, which was to be made under 08 Standard Head, by stating that the payment from this Head can only be made to those persons who have been engaged on contract or outsourcing agency like UPNL and PRD against the regular and sanctioned post.
However, in 2024— a Coordinate Bench rejected this contention and passed an interim order stating that petitioners shall be paid arrears of remuneration and regular remuneration on a month-to-month basis. The Bench stated that the payment-related difficulty was curable by the State Government itself. It was also assured by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and the Chief Conservator of Forest, Human Research Development— that the Department was sincerely taking up the issue with the State Government to resolve the problem faced by the petitioners.
Against this backdrop, the Court held,
“In such view of the matter, no useful purpose would be served by keeping these writ petitions pending, when the only issue is regarding discontinuance of engagement of petitioners on the sole ground of change of head under which the wages are to be paid.
Directing the State Government to not discontinue the services, the petitions were accordingly disposed of.
Case Details:
Case Number: WPSS/2309/2023 and batch