K P VELAYUDHAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Judgment of learned single Judge declining to interfere with Ext. P4 order of Government is under challenge in this Writ Appeal.

(2.) A brief reference to the factual aspects would suffice. Appellant was an employee of Cheruvathur Farmers Cooperative Bank Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'the Bank'). Disciplinary action was initiated against him. Finally, an order directing reduction in rank, as a measure of penalty, was passed. An appeal was preferred before the Board of the Bank which did not succeed. Dispute was raised by the appellant under S.69 of the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act, 1969 (in short 'the Act'). Same was not entertained by Arbitrator on the ground that the controversy raised by appellant was not a "dispute" within the definition of the expression in S.69. Accordingly petition filed by appellant was dismissed. A revision petition was filed before Government, purportedly under S.87 of the Act. Government rejected the said petition holding that the impugned order was one under S.70 of the Act and was therefore not revisable and only an appeal would lie under S.82. Appellant moved this Court for interference. View of Government was confirmed in the O.P. and that is why present appeal has been filed.

(3.) Learned counsel for appellant submitted that on a bare reading of sub-s.(4) of S.69 as it stood at the relevant time, the conclusion of Government cannot be maintained. Learned counsel for the Bank however submitted that the view taken by learned single Judge as well as by State Government does not suffer from any infirmity.