Swamy Asks Uttarakhand CM Dhami To Take Decision In Favour Of Sacked Assembly Employees

Former BJP MP Subramanian Swamy has suggested convening an all-party meeting and taking a decision in accordance with the law in favour of more than 200 dismissed ad-hoc employees of the Uttarakhand Assembly, claiming their termination was "unconstitutional".

In a letter to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, the former Union law and justice minister said the 228 terminated ad-hoc employees had written to him saying injustice had been done to them.

"I hope you would convene an all-party meeting or do anything at your level to take a decision in accordance with the law in favour of these employees because I also feel injustice has been done to them," Swamy wrote to Dhami on Thursday.

It is not right to discriminate between employees appointed in a state through the same procedure, he said. He also enclosed the letter dated February 14 written by the terminated employees to him along with his communication to Dhami, and marked a copy of it to Assembly Speaker Ritu Khanduri.

"I don't just hope but am confident that you will definitely reinstate the dismissed ad-hoc appointees," Swamy wrote to the chief minister. In a tweet later, Swamy said he had written to the chief minister "urging him to take action in the matter of unjustified termination of 228 appointees.... Prima facie the terminations were unconstitutional. I hope a court case is not necessary."

The ad-hoc appointments in question had been revoked by the Assembly Speaker in September last year on the recommendation of a probe panel of experts following allegations that they had been made through the "back door".

The revoked appointments included 150 made in 2015, six in 2020 and 72 in 2021. The Uttarakhand High Court has upheld the Speaker's decision in November 2022, quashing the order of a single-judge bench for their reinstatement.