Abdul Hakeem M.A. & Ors. v. Mahatma Gandhi University & Ors.
Background
The appellants were appointed as Lecturers/Professors at Mahatma Gandhi University's self-financing engineering college (University College of Engineering, Thodupuzha) against posts created by Syndicate resolutions in the mid-1990s. Although their appointment orders referred to University Statutes and nothing indicated they were temporary, the University later took the position (from 2001 onward) that they were only "temporarily appointed," and limited their pay-revision benefits accordingly. The Kerala High Court's Single Judge ruled in the teachers' favour, declaring them permanent, but a Division Bench reversed this and dismissed a review petition, leading to the appeal before the Supreme Court.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court examined the documentary trail, the Syndicate resolutions, appointment orders, AICTE faculty records, and the University's own budget submissions, and found that at no stage had the appellants been told their posts were temporary or contractual; such limitations were always stated explicitly elsewhere when intended. The Court also noted the University had inconsistently told AICTE the same teachers were "permanent faculty," and that the High Court's Division Bench had separately ruled in favour of similarly placed teachers from the same institution in an order that had itself been affirmed by the Supreme Court. Finding the record pointed "completely in the direction of the appellants," the Court allowed the appeals, set aside the Division Bench's judgment, and restored the Single Judge's 2014 order declaring the appellants permanent teachers entitled to full pay-revision benefits. A connected petition (Jacob K. Daniel's case) was segregated and sent back for separate listing since his appointment order had expressly stated it was temporary.
Lesson Learnt
An employer's own contemporaneous documents, appointment orders, resolutions, and representations made to external bodies like AICTE, carry significant weight in determining an employee's true status; an employer cannot retroactively reclassify a worker as "temporary" years later if it never said so in writing at the time and took the opposite position elsewhere.