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2010 Supreme(Mad) 2562
High Court of Judicature at Madras
THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE K. CHANDRU
Salem, Namakkal & Erode District Taluk Co-operative Housing Societies Employees Union & Others
Versus
The Registrar of Co-operative Societies (Housing) & Others
W.P.NOs.24495, 25666 and 27069 of 2009 and 7071 of 2010 in M.P.NOs.1 and 2 OF 2009, 1 of 2010, 1 to 3 of 2009 and 1 to 3 of 2010
Decided On : 01-07-2010
For the Petitioners:V. Ajoy Khose, Ms.Thenmozhi Sivaperumal, C. Prakasam, Advocates.
For the Respondents:R2, K. Balakrishnan, Mrs. D. Geetha, AGP, R5, P. Muthukumar, Advocate.
The main legal point established in the judgment is that cooperative societies are not considered a State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution, and the availability of remedies through industrial adjudicating machinery for disputes related to wage and industrial laws.
Headnote:
Employees Union - Cooperative Housing Societies - TNCS Act 1983 & Rules 1988, Rule 149, Industrial Dispute Act 1947 - The court discussed and referenced TNCS Act 1983 & Rules 1988, Rule 149, and Industrial Dispute Act 1947. The key legal provisions discussed were the conditions specified in TNCS Act 1983 & Rules 1988, Rule 149, and the provisions related to irregular employees under the Industrial Dispute Act 1947. The court's decision was influenced by the interpretation of these provisions and their applicability to the dispute.
Fact of the Case:
The petitioners, employees union of various Cooperative Housing Societies, challenged the circular issued by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies fixing cadre strength and pay scale. The dispute revolved around the regularization of irregular employees and the criteria for payment of salary and allowances.
Finding of the Court:
The court found that the challenge to the circular was not maintainable as cooperative societies were not considered a State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution. The court also emphasized the availability of remedies through industrial adjudicating machinery for disputes related to wage and industrial laws.
Issues: The issues included the maintainability of the challenge to the circular, the applicability of statutory provisions to the dispute, and the infringement of Article 21 of the Constitution.
Ratio Decidendi: The court held that cooperative societies were not a State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution, and the challenge to the circular was not maintainable under Article 226. It emphasized the availability of remedies through industrial adjudicating machinery for disputes related to wage and industrial laws.
Final Decision: All the writ petitions were dismissed, and the connected miscellaneous petitions were also dismissed.
In the first writ petition (W.P.No.24495 of 2009), the petitioner is Employees Union of various Cooperation Housing Societies functioning in Districts of Salem, Namakkal and Erode. It is claimed to be registered and also affiliated to Labour Progressive Federation (LPF). The prayer in that writ petition is for a writ of declaration declaring that clauses No.5, 6(1)A and 6(VIII) in RC No.4304/2003 SF2 dated 15.06.2009 passed by the respondent are illegal, unconstitutional and void.
2. In that writ petition, the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (Housing), the sole respondent, issued a circular, dated 15.6.2009 fixing the cadre strength, pay scale in respect of various employees working in the Cooperative Housing Society. The petitioner is aggrieved by the following clauses:
"5.Irregular Deputations:
There are large number of employees irregularly deputed from their parent Societies and working in other Societies. They are to be necessarily reverted back to their parent Societies and for them, Settlement is to be made only based on the conditions at the parent Society level. They may be regularized subject to the condition that they should fulfill all the conditions specified in TNCS Act 1983 & Rules 1988, Rule 149.
6. Guidelines for implementation:
i) Notwithstanding anything contained in the orders released hereinabove, the following or the criteria for the payment of salary and other allowances etc. in respect of the societies other than the profit making societies;
(A) The actual payment of salary and other Allowances shall be worked out based on the total earnings of the society i.e. 1% of interest margin earned.
(viii) Irregular Employees: In respect of irregular employees in order to maintain industrial peace, smooth functioning of the system and without interruption of service to the public. It is ordered that the irregular employees shall be paid a consolidated pay as detailed in the Annexure II effective from 1.1.2009. Total existing strength of this category of irregular employees also paid the higher scale of pay as per the settlements u/s 12(3) and 18(1) of the Industrial Dispute Act 1947 now drawn shall not be taken into consideration. The demand of the employees organizations representatives to regularise the service of the irregular employees shall be taken up and a proposal shall be sent to Govt. seeking permission for the regularization with new time scale of pay until then the consolidated pay so fixed above may be allowed to draw, subject to the orders of the Govt. in this regard with the following conditions.
(a) The employees getting consolidated pay as per this order cant demand parity with regular employees.
(b) This will not confer regularization in the post and consequent benefits such as seniority, promotion etc.
(c) The employees getting consolidated pay now as per this order will continue to be treated as "Irregular employees" and will be governed by such rules as applicable for this category.
(d) Clauses like parity with "Junior getting more pay" will not be applicable in these cases.
(e) The irregular employees getting consolidated pay shall not be entitled to claim any higher salary or weightage for any reason whatsoever.
(f) Irregular employees getting consolidated pay shall not be legally entitled to claim any service benefits.
(g) In order to maintain the industrial peace the consolidated pay is granted. The consolidated pay itself is only provisional and it will not confer their status as employees of the society until the decision of the Government in this regard.
(h) The consolidated pay for irregular employees will be disbursed proportionately as prescribed in para 6(i) above."
3. The writ petition was admitted on 5.1.2010. Pending the writ petition, an interim stay was granted. The matter was also directed to be posted along with W.P.No.25666 of 2009.
4. W.P.No.25666 of 2009 was filed by five petitioners working in Ginjee Taluk Cooperative Housing Society Limited, Gin
