Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra presiding, upheld the Division Bench’s decision. The Bench noted that the candidate was not an apprentice but was appointed on probation and received a regular salary, thereby accumulating the requisite experience.
NEW DELHI: Today (May 23): The Supreme Court upheld the Delhi High Court’s decision that the probation period with a previous employer should be considered as work experience for the recruitment of Engineers at NTPC Ltd. The Supreme Court dismissed the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by NTPC, supporting the Division Bench’s view, and set aside the initial decision by a single judge.
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The Supreme Court, with Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra presiding, upheld the Division Bench’s decision. The bench noted that the candidate was not an apprentice but was appointed on probation and received a regular salary, thereby accumulating the requisite experience.
The Court stated,
“As observed, the respondent was not an apprentice at his previous organization but was appointed on probation. His former employer provided him with the necessary experience certificate. Given these circumstances, the view taken by the Division Bench in granting relief to the respondent-writ petitioner is justified. The directive for the respondent’s appointment to be on the same date as others in his batch is also appropriate. Therefore, the appeal is found to be without merit and is dismissed.”
The Court further observed that the NTPC advertisement did not explicitly state that the probationary period should be excluded from the total work experience.
Hence, the Division Bench’s interpretation to include the probation period was justified.
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The Court stated,
“The Division Bench, after reviewing the offer letter dated October 28, 2015 (Annexure P-1) and the experience certificate dated October 9, 2018, issued by the respondent’s former employers, concluded that the probation period for the appointee should be counted towards fulfilling the experience criteria. The Court highlighted the need to differentiate between probation and training, noting that since the respondent was on probation and receiving a regular salary, he should be considered to have acquired the necessary experience as stipulated in the advertisement issued on August 6, 2019.”
The Court emphasized the distinction between probation and training. During probation, the candidate was drawing a regular salary and performing duties akin to those of permanent employees, thus gaining practical experience.
“The Court noted that the Division Bench specifically addressed the advertisement, commenting that it did not stipulate that the probationary or training periods should be excluded when calculating the total experience period for any candidate,” the Court stated.
The candidate’s previous employer issued an experience certificate, which NTPC should have considered valid.
The advertisement for the NTPC position did not specify the exclusion of probationary periods from the work experience requirement, making the Division Bench’s interpretation reasonable.
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Background
The dispute arose when the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) disqualified an OBC candidate who applied for the position of Engineer (E-2 grade) in various disciplines at NTPC’s Thermal Power Plant shift operations. The job advertisement required a minimum of three years of post-qualification experience. The candidate, who had nearly three years of work experience, was disqualified by NTPC on the grounds that his probation period should not be counted as experience.
The candidate initially filed a writ petition before the Delhi High Court, which was dismissed by a Single Judge who ruled that the probation period should be excluded when calculating work experience. The candidate then appealed, and the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court reversed this decision, ruling that the probation period should indeed be included.
Case Title: NTPC v. Piyush Kumar Singh
