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PESHAWAR, Mar 10 (APP):Peshawar High Court has dismissed a petition filed by over 50 faculty and administrative members of Women University Swabi, seeking regularization of their contractual employment.
The Court reaffirmed the principle that contractual appointments do not confer an automatic right to permanent absorption unless explicitly provided under law.
The petitioners contended that they had been serving the university for an extended period on sanctioned posts and, therefore, deserved to be regularized. However, the Court found that their initial appointments had been made on a contract basis without undergoing an open and competitive selection process, as required by law.
The Court further observed that the petitioners failed to establish any statutory entitlement to regularization and that their claims could not override the university’s obligation to ensure merit-based hiring.
Representing the respondent university, Barrister Syed Saad Ali Shah successfully argued that public sector appointments must adhere to due process, transparency, and open competition, as mandated by law.
The university maintained that granting regularization without following a lawful recruitment process would set a precedent contrary to established legal principles and Supreme Court rulings.
In its detailed judgment, the Court emphasized that public employment is a public trust, and any deviation from statutory requirements for hiring could compromise the integrity of recruitment processes in academia.
The ruling also highlighted the fact that some petitioners had already participated in fresh recruitment processes advertised by the university, further weakening their claim to regularization without competition.
This decision aligns with the Supreme Court’s settled jurisprudence, which holds that contractual employees cannot claim regularization as a matter of right unless there is a clear statutory provision supporting such absorption.
The ruling is expected to serve as a precedent for other public sector institutions facing similar legal challenges regarding employment regularization.