ORDER:

This writ petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking the following relief:-

“…to issue any Writ, order or directions more in the nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the 1st respondent in not admitting as members in the Indian Leaf Tobacco Development Company Staff Co- operative Industrial House Construction Society Limited inspite of having eligibility as illegal, arbitrary and contrary to the byelaws of the 1st respondent society and consequently direct the respondents herein to pass appropriate orders on our representations dated 22.03.2010 and 09.08.2020 forthwith and pass such other order or orders…”

2. The case of the petitioners, in brief, is that the petitioners are the employees of Indian Leaf Tobacco Development Company (ITC-ILTD) having joined in the said company as Technicians and having put 32 to 35 years of service in the said company. For the benefit of the employees, all the employees have formed into a society under the name and style “Indian Leaf Tobacco Development Company Staff Cooperative Industrial House Construction Society Limited” and registered the same under the Co-operative society under the Act 6 of 1932 (Madras). In order to get admission as member of the society, the eligibility criteria, as per the bye-laws of the society is that any industrial worker, who is over 18 years of age, competent to contract and who is bonafide employee of the Indian Leaf Tobacco Development Company and governed by the Factories Act of 1948 or the Employees Provident Fund Act of 1952, shall be eligible for admission as members of the society. All the petitioners have almost completed the age of

18 years of services and are eligible to the members of the society.

3. Anticipating that they are eligible for being members of the society, all the petitioners have submitted their applications along with the requisite fee on 26.07.1999 to the 3rd respondent, who in turn forwarded the same to the then President/Secretary of the 1st respondent society, through his letter dated 27.01.2000 and 23.12.2000. However, the then President rejected their applications stating that all the petitioners were not eligible to become members of the society. Since then the petitioners have constantly made several representations to the respondents requesting to admit them as members of the 1st respondent society, but no action has been taken so far till date. Recently, on 09.08.2010, the petitioners approached the 3rd respondent and submitted their representations requesting him to consider their applications for admitting them as members of the 1st respondent society. It is the case of the petitioners that initially, nearly 252 members submitted their applications for getting membership, out of whom, 111 members have either died or retired from service. At present, there are only 141 members including the petitioners. For the past 10 years, the petitioners are agitating their rights for getting admission in society at different levels, but no action has been taken so far. Aggrieved by the same, the present writ petition came to be filed. 4. The 1st respondent filed his counter inter alia contending that the petitioners are working in the Indian Leaf Tobacco Development Company, but they are not members of the society. The 1st respondent society came into existence in the year 1959 and the Managing Committee acquired about 103 acres of land for construction of houses for the members of the society. Accordingly, 131 houses were constructed in about 10 cents each after laying 60 feet roads and leaving some part of the land for common amenities like schools, hospitals and community hall etc. He further stated that though there were about 1344 members in the society, the eligible voters list consists of about 355 members, the other members have never attended the general body meetings conducted for the past several years. The respondents further stated that certain applications seeking membership int