In Brief
Irregularly appointed daily-wage workers of Jharkhand sought regularization after completing 10 years of service. The High Court denied regularization because they had not completed 10 years by the Umadevi cut-off date of 10th April 2006—impossible for Jharkhand, created in 2000. The Supreme Court held that regularization rules must be interpreted pragmatically, not rigidly. Employees completing 10 years by the date the Regularization Rules were promulgated are entitled to regularization unless there is misconduct or other valid objection. The strict temporal cut-off cannot render an entire state's regularization scheme meaningless, contrary to the constitutional objectives established in Umadevi.
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