The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that employees cannot be regularised merely on the basis of their length of service unless their work and conduct during the tenure is good.The Bench, at the same time, made it clear that any adverse conduct relied upon to deny regularisation could not be more than five years old.The ruling came on a bunch of appeals filed by local bodies in Punjab in case of employees, who had rendered decades of service.The Division Bench of Justice Harsimran Singh Sethi and Justice Minderjeet Yadav made the observation while modifying orders of a Single Judge whereby writ petitions filed by drivers working in different Municipal Councils/Corporations were allowed and their services directed to be regularised.Taking up the appeals filed by the Municipal Corporations against the Single Judge’s orders, the Bench noted it was a “conceded position” that the respondent-employees had been working with the appellant-local bodies for more than 30 years.“Once, the said service is conceded, the claim for regularization will be covered as per the judgements of the Hon’ble Supreme Court…,” the Bench observed.It, at the same time, took note of the appellants’ arguments that the Single Judge had granted deemed regularisation without examining whether the service record of the individual respondent-employees was good enough for regularisation.The Bench recorded: “Deemed regularization has been given by the Single Judge even without noticing as to whether the record of any of the respondents is good enough to regularize or not.”Accepting the contention, the Bench held: “The argument is worth accepting as the regularization of the services of the employees, who had rendered three decades of service can only be regularized in case the work and conduct of such employee is good during the tenure.”The Court, thereafter, modified the Single Judge’s orders “to the extent that there will be no deemed regularization, as directed”.The Bench added the employees, who have completed more than 10 years of service as of now, would be considered for regularization keeping in view the law settled by the Supreme Court.“The benefit will not be denied either on the ground that the initial appointment was not as per procedure, the drivers did not possess the relevant qualification at the relevant time and there is no post available for regularization or they were working on part time basis, as such issues have already been considered and rejected by the Supreme Court of India as per the law reproduced hereinabove.“It is only in case the work and conduct of any employee disentitles, the same will be looked into and such conduct, if brought into operation to deny, should not be more than five years old,” the Bench added.The counsel for the respondent-employees stated there was no objection if the authorities considered their claims and passed appropriate orders regularising their services in a time-bound manner.“Let appropriate orders be passed within a period of eight weeks from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order, in terms of the order passed by this Court,” the Bench directed.