JUDGMENT :

Arup Kumar Goswami, J.

The petitioner in Writ Petition (PIL) No. 19 of 2021 is a learned Advocate of this Court. The writ petition was filed on 15.02.2021 with the grievance that after the retirement of Shri T.K. Chakraborty on 13.07.2019 as President of State Industrial Court, Raipur, the post has remained vacant for about one and half year.

2. Pleaded case of the petitioner is that in terms of Section 9(1) of the Chhattisgarh Industrial Relations Act, 1960, for short, “the Act of 1960”, the Industrial Court is to be constituted by a President and one or more Members. One Member, namely, Shri Shiv Kumar Tripathi, was appointed on 04.10.2019. However, for want of prescribed quorum, the appeals from Labour Courts and the reference cases from the State Government are not being adjudicated as any hearing by a lone Member would be illegal being coram non judice. As a result, pending cases are accumulating.

3. It is stated that appointment of the President of the Industrial Court is required to be made in accordance with Rule 6(3) of the Chhattisgarh Labour Judicial Service (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2015, for short, “the Rules of 2015”, read with Section 9 (2