IMPORTANT POINT
The court established that the Registrar of Trade Unions cannot resolve internal disputes of a union and that aggrieved parties must seek civil court remedies.

ORDER :

Heard Mr.V.Murali Manohar, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners, learned Government Pleader for labour appearing on behalf of respondent Nos.1 to 5, 17 and 19, Mr.V. Narasimha Goud, learned counsel appearing on behalf of respondent Nos.6, 7, 13 and 15, Mr. N.Praveen Kumar, learned standing counsel for TSRTC appearing on behalf of respondent No.18.

2. The Petitioners approached the Court seeking prayer as under :

“.....to grant an order or direction or writ, more so in the nature of writ of Certiorari, calling for the records pertaining to Lr.No.C/924/2021 and orders dt. 04-10-2022 and quash the same as being illegal, arbitrary and highhanded, apart from being violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, contrary to orders dt.20-12-2022 in W.P. No. 24872 of 2021 passed by this Hon'ble Court and pass such other order or orders.....”

PERUSED THE RECORD

3. This Court passed Interim order dated 18.10.2022 in W.P.No.38731 of 2022, reads as under:

“Notice to respondent Nos.6 to 19

Personal notice is permitted

Status quo, obtaining as on today, shall be maintained till the next date of hearing.”

Post on 01.11.2022

4. The said interim order had been extended pending further orders vide order of this Court, dated 28.02.2023 passed in I.A.No.03 of 2023 in W.P.No.38731 of 2022 and the same are in force as on date.

5. A memo has been filed on behalf of petitioner No.4, who had filed present writ petition representing the petitioner No.1/RTC Telangana Mazdoor Union in the capacity of General Secretary and the contention of the said memo filed in the month of January, 2023, reads as under:

“It is humbly submitted that I am the Counsel representing A. Ramachandra Reddy, who is a petitioner No.4 in the above writ petition and he has filed the present writ petition representing the petitioner No.1 Union, in the capacity of General Secretary. Since, Mr. A. Ramachandra Reddy is not interested to pursue the writ petition and accordingly he is not presenting the writ petition. Hence, I am requesting the Hon'ble Court to close the writ petition as Mr.A. Ramachandra Reddy is concerned, who is representing the petitioner No.1 Union and he is also petitioner No.4.

In the above circumstance, it is prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to close the writ petition No. 38731 of 2022 as so far as Mr. A. Ramachandra Reddy is concerned, who is petitioner No. 4 and also representing the petitioner No. 1 Union and pass such other order or orders as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case.”

6. The case of the Petitioners as per the averments made by the petitioners in the affidavit filed by the petitioners in support of the present Writ Petition, in brief, are as follows:

(a) It is the case of the petitioners that, the 1st Petitioner union was registered under the Trade Unions Act, 1926 on 27.10.2011 at the office of the 4th Respondent vide registration number is A-4528 and an ad-hoc committee for the 1st Petitioner union was formed of which the 6th Respondent was the Working President, the 2nd Petitioner was the General Secretary, the 10th Respondent was the Chief Vice-President, the Respondent Nos. 11 and 14 were the Joint Secretary and the 12th Respondent was State Secretary and the same was intimated to the Managing Director, APSRTC vide communication dated 16.11.2011.

(b) Thereafter, the Respondent Nos. 6, 7, 12, 13 and 14 have submitted their resignation due to internal disputes in the 1st Petitioner Union. However, the said respondents began to misrepresent that they were designated office-bearers of the Petitioner union by printing letter heads of the 1st Petitioner union with their names, despite having submitted their resignations on 28.09.2020. On 21.11.2020 the 2nd Petitioner, issued a public notice representing the 1st Petitioner union, on the letter-head of the 1st Petitioner union bringing to the notice of the general public about the illegal activities of a few former office-bearers