The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the State of Punjab to regularise 46 employees working in the Tarn Taran Deputy Commissioner’s office with effect from December 24, 2016, and grant them the pay scales and consequential benefits payable to similarly placed regular employees, with interest.The ruling holds that the government cannot indefinitely withhold implementation of a decision accepting employees’ claims after the matter has been considered pursuant to a judicial direction and the State has assured the court that the benefits would be granted.Justice Sandeep Moudgil directed that the pay-scale and consequential benefits would carry 6 per cent annual interest from December 24, 2016, until actual realisation. Arrears arising from regularisation would carry 9 per cent annual interest from the date they became due until actual realisation, subject to the restriction that the arrears would be limited to the 36 months preceding the filing of the writ petition on July 22, 2021.In his detailed order, Justice Moudgil asserted: “The services of the petitioners shall be regularised from the effective date of the Punjab Ad Hoc, Contractual, Daily Wage, Temporary, Work-charge and outsourced employees Welfare Act, 2016, came into being since the petitioners have already been on the rolls of State Exchequer and have completed three years of service.”Employees working since 2006Justice Moudgil’s Bench, during the course of hearing, was told that 46 employees had been working in the office since 2006, initially through outsourcing and subsequently on a contractual basis from December 24, 2016. The Deputy Commissioner, Tarn Taran, accepted their claim for regularisation in a speaking order dated August 6, 2021, and forwarded it to the Financial Commissioner (Revenue) for consequential action.Justice Moudgil recorded that the Deputy Commissioner concluded that the employees’ services were liable to be regularised and had also considered their entitlement to pay parity. “Since the respondents were sitting tight over the issue, the petitioners moved instant application bearing in which notice was issued on December 23, 2021,” the Bench observed  State could not reopen settled issueThe State argued that the Deputy Commissioner’s order was merely a recommendation. It also relied on a proposed 2021 Bill on contractual employees’ regularisation. Rejecting these objections, Justice Moudgil held that the employees had worked through outsourcing since 2007 and were subsequently taken directly on contract under the statutory scheme. It also observed that the proposed Bill had not received the Governor’s assent. “A Bill which has not become law cannot, by itself, repeal an existing enactment or obliterate rights claimed under the enactment,” the court said.The court noted that on August 11, 2026, the Advocate-General, assisted by the Financial Commissioner (Revenue), had assured the Bench that the employees were eligible for regularisation and equal-pay benefits and that the necessary orders would be issued within two days. The subsequent affidavit again questioned their eligibility.“The State cannot be permitted to take one stand before the Court through the Advocate-General and the Financial Commissioner and thereafter adopt a contrary position through an affidavit filed in the same proceedings,” the court held.Justice Moudgil directed the authorities to implement the August 6, 2021, order and the assurance recorded on August 11, 2026, subject to legally required formalities. The applications were allowed accordingly.