New Delhi, April 12: The Supreme Court has held that daily-wage workers do not have a right to seek regularisation of their services even if they have been working for the government for years.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal observed that regularisation of employees on daily wages would mean keeping out those who were qualified for the post.

There was nothing in the Constitution which prohibited engaging people on daily wages but regular appointment had to be in terms of relevant rules, giving equal opportunity to citizens to compete for public employment, the court said in its 60-page judgment, a copy of which was made available today.

The filling up of vacancies cannot be done in a haphazard manner or based on patronage or other considerations, the court said. The bench made it clear that the rights of a “handful of people” had to give way to the “teeming millions” in the country seeking employment and fair opportunity to compete for a public job.

The Karnataka government had moved the apex court against orders by the high court directing regularisation of daily wagers working for over 10 years in the state.

Allowing a batch of appeals by the government, the apex court said the directions by the high court meant legalising appointments of those who had entered through the back door.

Though the court approved engaging people on daily wages to meet the needs of the situation, it expressed displeasure at the trend to let such employees continue in service year after year.

An order regularising daily wagers would only encourage the government to flout its own rules and confer benefits on a few at the cost of many waiting to compete. Unless the appointment is in terms of relevant rules and after a proper competition among qualified persons, the employee would not have a right to be confirmed, the court clarified.

The Supreme Court said that neither did people engaged on daily wages have a legal right to be permanently absorbed nor did the state have a legal duty to make them permanent. It set aside the orders of the high court, which had relied on an earlier apex court judgment.

The Karnataka government contended that the apex court’s earlier order was for a specific case and could not be applied to all cases. The regularisation would mean giving the go-by to rules and regulations fixed for employment in a particular department, the state government added.

It also pointed out that those from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes would be denied their share of jobs in government departments if the daily-wage employees were regularised. The process of appointment of daily-wage workers was different from the one for regular service.

As several high courts, including that of Himachal Pradesh, had passed similar orders, the apex court had referred the matter to a Constitution bench. The bench said all previous apex court decisions to the contrary should no longer be treated as precedents.