An unincorporated association cannot maintain an application under Article 226 unless it is permitted by statute to initiate legal proceedings in its own name or has been affected by the impugned order as a collective body.

( 1 ) THIS Rule involves a dispute between two sections of the subordinate employees in the office of the Director-General of Ordnance Factories, represented by two Unions.

( 2 ) THE Petitioner is the Employees' Association which represents employees other than stenographers. The "stenographers' Association" has been added as Respondent No. 3 at their intervention. Respondent No. 1 is the Union of India and Respondent No. 2 is the Director-General of Ordnance Factories.

( 3 ) ACCORDING to the Petitioner Association, the Stenographers are outside the clerical cadre: that there is no Rule authorising the promotion of Stenographers to the grade of Assistants and that the Stenographers had no higher prospects in their career. Administratively, however. Respondents reserved a post of Assistant-in-Charge to be filled up from the cadre of Stenographers of Grade 13 and on the protest of the Petitioner. Respondent No. 2 stated that it was only a "non-recurring measure" (Annexure A) which had been adopted "to remove from the minds of the Stenographers the sense of frustration which they were suffering from for not having any scope of advancement".

( 4 ) SINCE 1962, the Respondents have been proposing to combine the two services by making a combined seniority list of Clerks and Stenographers and Petitioner has been making representations against the proposal. On 16-5-64, Respondent No. 1 intimated that the matter was under consideration. In spite of this, the Respondent No. 2, on 22-12-64, appointed 4 Stenographers to the posts of Assistants in the Clerical cadre against existing vacancies in the posts of Superintendents, -- to the prejudice of the clerical staff (vide Annexure F), and this policy has been repeated by another series of such appointments per order at (Annexure G), dated 31-12-64. The Petitioner points out that the proposal for a merger of the two cadres of Stenographers and Assistants was rejected by the Pay Commission on the ground that the qualifications for and the nature of the work etc. , of the two cadres were entirely different. The Petitioner challenges the aforesaid decision of the Respondents to merge the two cadres and the validity of the order of appointment at Annexure F.

( 5 ) THE Petition is opposed by affidavits on behalf of Respondent 2 as well as the added Respondent No. 3.

( 6 ) BEFORE entering into the merits of the Petition, it is necessary to dispose of the preliminary objection taken on behalf of the Respondent 3, namely, that the Petitioner, being an unincorporated association, cannot maintain an application under Article 226 and that the grievance, if any, of its members should be agitated in appropriate proceedings brought by them in their individual capacity.

( 7 ) THE Petitioner Association is, of course, not an incorporated body but it relies on the fact that it has been 'recognised' by the Government according to the Central Services (Recognition of Service Associations) Rules, 1959, made in exercise of powers conferred by Article 309 of the Constitution. Recognition, however, gives an employees' association only a status in its relationship and dealings with the employer, i. e. , the Government. It has nothing to do with the representation of its members in a litigation before a Court of law. The question has therefore, to be answered on general principles as explained by judicial decisions.

( 8 ) IN cases where the right of a collective body to bring proceedings under Article 226 is challenged, two questions have to be answered:-- (a) Is the Petitioner a legal entity or otherwise permitted by statute to initiate legal proceedings in its own name? (b) Has it been affected by the impugned order as a collective body? (a) So far as the first question is concerned, it is patent that a legal proceeding may be maintained only by an individual or other body which is recognised as a legal person.

( 9 ) IN the case of a body incorporated by law, the corporate body acquires a legal