Job not regularised even after 35 years, Assam man seeks nod for euthanasia

GUWAHATI: A work charge employee of the Assam government, whose job has not been regularised even after 35 years, has written to President Ram Nath Kovind, the governor and chief justices of the Supreme Court and the Gauhati high court to allow him euthanasia on the date of his retirement on May 30 next year.
Dulal Bora joined the state public works department in 1987 as a muster roll worker in Nagaon division. He became a helper and is currently a section assistant in the same division but his job has not been regularized yet.
"I am still a work charge employee and if my job is not regularized before I retire, I will not be eligible for pension. What do I do then? I will be left with just one option of ending my life and that is why I have sought permission for euthanasia from the people at the highest levels," Bora told TOI from his Nagaon home.
He said he is fighting for justice not just for himself. "There are hundreds of work charge employees and if I get justice, others too will get," he added.
Bora said he has been submitting applications with the department for regularization of his job every year. "I don't remember when I submitted the first application. The last one was on October 22, 2021 and in response to this on May 11 this year, the department informed me that my job will not be regularized," Bora said
On May 11, a deputy secretary of the department, in a letter to Bora (a copy of which is with TOI), informed him that as per an order of the high court in 2017 that muster roll, work charge and casual workers are "not entitled for regularization of their services with consequential benefits such as pension and since you being work charge employee, you are not entitled for any pensionary benefits."
Bora said, "The Supreme Court, in February this year, upheld an order of the Gujarat High Court, directing the government to pay the pensionary benefits to an ad hoc employee who retired after more than 30 years of services (SL/2022 in State of Gujarat and others vs Talsibhai Dhanjibhai Patel)".
In 2018, the apex court gave legal sanction to passive euthanasia in a landmark verdict, permitting 'living will' by patients on withdrawing medical support if they slip into irreversible coma.