( 1 ) THIS writ appeal is filed by the South Central Railway employees Co-op. Credit Society Employees union, the 5th respondent in the writ petition, assailing the correctness of the order of the learned single Judge dated 6-8-1996 made in WP No. 17756 of 1998. The above writ petition was filed by respondents 1 to 7 herein praying for a writ of Certiorari to quash the proceedings No. CC. 5/14/court/ resn/1998 dated 12-6-1998 issued by the 4th respondent in the writ petition on the ground that the proceeding was issued in violation of Articles 14, 16 and 311 of the constitution of India apart from being violative of principles of natural justice and for a consequential direction to the appellant herein to implement the earlier proceedings dated 1-4-1998 issued by the appellant itself.

( 2 ) THE facts of the case be noted briefly as under: The South Central Railway employees Co-op. Credit Society (for short, the Society), the 4th respondent in the writ petition, which is 11th respondent in this writ appeal, is a Society registered under the a. P. Co-op. Societies Act, 1964 (for short, the Act) consisting of the employees of the south Central Railway as its members. The respondents 1 to 7 herein, who belong to scheduled Caste, filed the above writ petition assailing the validity of the order of the secretary of the appellant-Union seeking to revert them in the purported exercise of implementing the judgment of the Supreme court in Civil Appeal No. 4343 of 1998 dated 13-1-1998 in the case of South Central employees Co-op. Employees Union, secunderabad v. Registrar of Co-op. Societies.

( 3 ) THE 34th Annual General Body meeting of the appellant-Union, at its meeting held on 29-6-1959, had passed an unanimous resolution to apply the Service rules of the Railways to its employees also. Resolution No. 21 so passed by the annual general Body reads as follows : "resolved that with effect from 1-12-1962 the rules applicable to the employees of the society in respect of superannuation, leave, discipline and conduct shall be similar to those in force in the Railways. Subsequently, the appellant-Union entered into an agreement with the Managing committee of the Society on 7-4-1979. Item no. 3 of the agreement relates to implementation of the reservation policy. It reads as follows:"quota and implementation :rest is to be maintained as per the instructions contained in the brochure followed by the Railways if there is any backlog on this account. This has to be cleared by adjusting against the future vacancies. "

( 4 ) IT is not in dispute that by the time the resolution was adopted, the Central government, its undertakings were following the rule of reservation in appointments by promotion also. In terms of the reservation policy and in implementation of the same, the writ petitioners were promoted.

( 5 ) WHILE things stood thus, the Act was amended by Amendment Act 19 of 1976. In the Amending Act, new section 116-8 was introduced dealing with reservation to be implemented by the Co-operative Societies governed by the act. Section 116-B, as introduced, reads as follows :"116-B: Power of Government to give directions to societies etc : The government may give directions, to a society or class of societies or an appointment committee constituted under Section 116a to make provision, (a) for the reservation of appointments or posts under any such society in any cadre created under the said section in favour of, or (b) for the grant of any special concessions in the matter of appointment to any such posts or cadre to, the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and Backward classes and the society or appointment committee shall be bound to comply with such directions and to give effect to any provision so made. "

( 6 ) IN exercise of the power conferred under Section 116-B of the Act, the government of Andhra Pradesh issued G. O. Ms. No. 55, dated 1-2-1977 directing implementation of the reservation in appointment to all posts in