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Madras HC upholds the appointment notification of DCPS
Integrated Child Protection Services better known as ICPS is a central government initiative in order to ensure the well being of children in the country. The main objective of ICPS is to bring all the child protective schemes under one umbrella ensuring a better implementation of them all. It is a centrally sponsored scheme aimed at building a protective environment for children in vulnerable areas and to help them flourish.
The ICPS scheme initiated by the central government focuses on the establishment of State and District level child protection services. The ICPS is a part and parcel of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India. They establish various services in different states which provide the children with all the care and other facilities. They have many schemes under their umbrella some of them are National Crèche Scheme, Anganwadi Services Scheme, POOSHAN Abhiyan and many more.
The District Child Protection Services (DCPS) had appointed one Mr. N R Amalraj as their Protection Officer of the DCPS. Based on the guidelines of the ICPS the position was to be filled by an individual who had such qualifications to undertake the job. The ICPS has also told that the job shall be based on a contract which would establish a contractual relationship therein.
The DCPS had entered into a contract with Mr. N R Amalraj on August 21, 2012 for a period of one year till 2013. After his tenure of one year expired the DCPS and Mr. Amalraj again entered into a contract appointing him as the Protection Officer of the DCPS. Again the position was given to him under a contract which was valid for the term of one year.
The contract was entered into on August 23rd, 2013 and he was consequently relieved from his position of the Protection Officer on August 24th, 2014. Following his removal no new Protection Officer was appointed for some time by the DCPS. When Mr. Amalraj came to know about this he wrote several letters to the DCPS asking them to allow him to continue as a Protection Officer.
On September 12th, 2014 the DCPS issued a notification for the post of Protection Officers. The notification called all the eligible and qualified persons to send in their applications for the post of Protection Officer for the DCPS. Mr. Amalraj was aggrieved by this notification of the DCPS and hence he approached the Madras HC seeking that this notification be held invalid.
While the matter was still being heard one Mr. Prabin was appointed as the Protection Officer in the year 2017. Based on all the applications that the DCPS received Mr. Prabin was apt for the job and hence an contract was entered between him and DCPS. The single judge hearing the matter was convinced by the case of Mr. Amalraj and he quashed the notification and asked DCPS to return he job back to Mr. Amalraj.
The Kanyakumari District Collector was aggrieved by this decision and the matter was brought to the Madras HC for their perusal. The counsel for Mr. Amalraj contended that the machinery of the DCPS was such that Mr. Amalraj should be allowed to get reappointed on the position for as long as this scheme is in place.
While the advocates of the other side argued that the appointment was purely on contractual basis and Mr. Amalraj was not reappointed because his work was not upto the mark. Both the appointments of Mr. Amalraj are on contractual basis only and not on ad hoc basis.
The court was inclined towards the arguments of the government pleader and hence they quashed the order given by the single judge. They upheld the validity of the notification of appointment and Mr. Prabin was allowed to continue on his position based on the contract. Also, it was held that the those who are appointed on contractual basis are not allowed to challenge any notification of appointment of the DCPS.
