The Government can be held responsible for the dues of employees of Co-operative Societies if it has involved itself in the affairs of the Societies and has a responsibility to pay the dues.

JUDGMENT

Common Order

1. Heard the learned counsel for the parties.

2. In all these Writ Petitions, the petitioners herein are the exemployees of three Co-operative Societies namely, a) Puducherry Public Servants Co-operative Stores P-456; b) Ariyankuppam Public Servants Stores P-455; and c) Bharathi Co-operative Consumer Stores Ltd., P-564. The petitioners herein were employed as Salesman / Assistant Clerk / Supervisors and had put in services between 20 to 25 years. As per the bye-laws of these Societies, the employee who have put in more than five years of continuous service in the stores shall be entitled for gratuity, apart from other service benefits including earned leave encashment, EPF contributions, ESI benefits and other admissible entailment. Around the year 2011, these Co-operative Stores were running on loss, which prompted the Government of Puducherry (hereinafter referred to as 'Government') to constitute a Rehabilitation Committee for improving the functioning of the Stores and to provide alternate employment to their staffs. By the month of March and April 2007, the salaries payable to the petitioners were stopped and ultimately on 22.01.2013, the Government had ordered for winding up of all these Stores. Consequently, the affairs of these Stores were handed over to the Liquidator. Thereafter, the Government had initiated efforts to accommodate the employees of the Stores including the petitioners herein in other Stores and Societies, which proved futile. The petitioners herein now seek for disbursement of their unpaid salaries, gratuity, earned leave encashment, EPF Contributions, ESI benefits and other admissible entailments along with interest.

3. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioners submitted that the three Stores are fully owned by the Government, which was also contributing share capital every year and since the Government could not rehabilitate the Stores or provide for alternate employment for the petitioners herein, it is bound to settle their dues. According to the learned counsel, the statutory dues of gratuity cannot be avoided or averted. Likewise, the employees Provident Fund, which was deducted from their salaries are statutory benefits to which these petitioners are entitled to.

4. The learned Government Pleader appearing on behalf of the all the respondents submitted that the Writ Petition against the Cooperative Societies, is not maintainable in view of the decision of the Hon'ble Five Judges Bench of this Court in K.Marappan Vs. The Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies and Another, which held that a Society cannot be characterised as a 'State', the service conditions of its employees governed by its bye-laws, cannot be enforced through a Writ Petition. He further submitted that Government would not be liable for payment of salary and other dues of these Co-operative Societies, which are not State owned Societies. By placing reliance on the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the Liquidator, the learned Government Pleader submitted that all these three Stores do not have any movable or immovable assets for salvage, except for some condemned and damaged furniture items. In this background, the learned Government Pleader sought for dismissal of the Writ Petitions.

5. I have given careful consideration to the submissions made by the respective counsels.

6. It would be apposite to address the ground of maintainability, after addressing the other grounds with regard to the Government's liability to pay the dues of the employees of the Co-operative Societies.

7. The management of the affairs of the Co-operative Societies Stores are governed by the Board of Executive Committee members comprising of Directors, who are the employees of various Departments of the Government of Puducherry. The Managing Director is an official of the Co-operative Department of the Puducherry Government. The Government infuses share capital every year to the Stores. The object of the Societies is to cater to