The Odisha High Court has ordered a stay on the 2013 notification of the State Government for retrenchment of over 18,000 Home Guards.
A single Bench of the court Justice Dr Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi, while ordering the stay, has issued notices to the Government for a reply in this regard.
According to senior advocate Bibhu Prasanna Tripathy, counsel for the petitioners, over 18,000 Home Guards have been assisting the State police in various ways for years but are being paid only a nominal salary for their hard work. But the Government, instead of regularising their services and considering better wages for them, has been retrenching them at will.
He said the Government had come up with a notification in 2013 for a ‘review board meeting’ with a
design to retrench the Home Guards.
Apprehensive over the ‘ulterior motive’ of the Government, Sudam Bhoi, Rashmitarani Rath and others had moved the High Court against the notification seeking timely judicial intervention in the issue, the lawyer said.