Shimla, July 23 -- The Himachal Pradesh High Court has dismissed a batch of petitions filed by Parent Teacher Association (PTA) teachers seeking the benefit of counting their initial temporary and contractual service towards seniority, annual increments and pensionary benefits, holding that such engagements were stop-gap arrangements outside the regular recruitment process.

A Division Bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Ranjan Sharma passed the judgment while disposing of Parveen Kumar and Others versus State of Himachal Pradesh, along with more than 60 connected writ petitions.

The petitioners had sought to declare the Himachal Pradesh Recruitment and Conditions of Service of Government Employees Act, 2024 (Act No. 23 of 20...