MOHAN SINGH Vs. CHAIRMAN RAILWAY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Eighteen Petitioners employed in the Railway Staff Canteen at Moradabad Division have filed this petition praying for directions to the Railways to recognize the canteen and regularize their services as railway employees. This writ petition was further amended to challenge the decision dated 9th September, 2002 of the Railways rejecting the Petitioners, request for recognition. The Petitioners base their petition essentially on the judgment of the Supreme Court in M.M.R. Khan v. Union of India, 1990 (Suppl) SCC 191.

(2.) The Petitioners state that Moradabad is one of the oldest railway junctions and the railway staff canteen there has been running in the Divisional Railway Manager's ('DRM') office for more than 70 years now. According to the Petitioners, there are more than a thousand employees in the Moradabad Division and the canteen in question caters to all of them.

(3.) The Petitioners submit that in M.M.R. Khan, the Supreme Court held that there was no difference between the employees of statutory recognized canteen and those of non-statutory recognized canteens. The employees of both canteens would be treated as railway employees. It is submitted that by withholding recognition to the canteen in which the Petitioners are working, the Railways were acting arbitrarily and unreasonably. It had deprived the Petitioners of the regularization of their services and consequently being treated as railway employees.