JUDGMENT :

HEMANT GUPTA, J.

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 7427 OF 2011, CIVIL APPEAL NO. 7429 OF 2011, CIVIL APPEAL NO. 7430 OF 2011, CIVIL APPEAL NO. 7431 OF 2011, CIVIL APPEAL NO. 7433 OF 2011 AND CIVIL APPEAL NO. 7435 OF 2011

1. The present appeals are directed against an order passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh on 19.3.2009 whereby the writ petitions filed by the respondents¹ [Hereinafter referred to as the ‘employees’] herein were allowed holding that the Punjab State Co-operative Milk Producers Federation Ltd. ² [For short the ‘Federation’] is a State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India and that the employees are therefore entitled to pay scale equivalent to their counterparts in the State of Punjab from 1.1.1986, though the revised pay scale was allowed by the Federation w.e.f. 1.1.1994.

2. The milk producers in the State launched the setting up of Cooperative Societies at village level which are known as Primary Milk Producers Cooperative Societies. Such Primary Milk Producers Cooperative Societies are in turn m