1. Being aggrieved by the dismissal of the application in A.No.2749 of 2012 in C.S.No.272 of 2012 and declining to reject the plaint filed by the respondent/plaintiff, the Appellants/ defendants have preferred this appeal.

2. The case of the respondent/plaintiff is that he is an employee of Railways and he joined the service in 2004. Presently, he is working as Senior Ticket Examiner at Station Manager Office, Madras Central Station, Chennai. The employees of Railways are governed by Railway Service (Conduct) Rules 1996, which stipulate the activities which are prohibited and which are permitted with prior approval. One such activity prohibited in the Service Rules is participating in politics in any form under Rule 5 of Railway Service (Conduct) Rules, 1966.

3. The 2nd Appellant viz., A.Gnanasekaran, who is presently working as Senior Section Engineer, CWM/Perambur, also claiming as Zonal General Secretary of 1st Appellant Association, was a member of the State Political party called 'Pattali Makkal Katchi'. During November 2011, the 2nd Appellant had given an interview to the Tamil daily Malai Malar and the same was published in the newspaper on 23.11.2011 in which it w