IQBAL Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners, working as daily wage drivers in various Panchayats of Kozhikode District, filed the Writ Petition impugning Exts. P10, P11 and P12 Government Orders, which mandate that recruitment to any post in the Panchayat shall be from and out of Ext. P13 rank list. When the matter was taken up for admission, the learned Government Pleader raised a jurisdictional objection. According to him, the issue stood concluded by the judgment of a learned Division Bench of this Court in Santhosh Kumar v. Director of Panchayats, 2013 2 KerLT 548), wherein it is held that any service dispute concerning the employees of Grama Panchayats shall be adjudicated upon by the Kerala Administrative Tribunal before recourse could be taken to Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) In response there to, the learned counsel for the petitioner, having initially taken a day's time to address the issue, today made elaborate submissions on the maintainability of the Writ Petition, strenuously contending that the denial of jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is an exception, and to meet that exception, there ought to have been very strong statutory reasons. He has further submitted that there shall be no easy inference of conferment of jurisdiction on Administrative Tribunal, which is a creation of statute having its own limitations. The learned counsel for the petitioner has also made earnest efforts to distinguish Santhosh Kumar, which is referred to above. According to the learned counsel, the said judgment was rendered essentially by placing reliance on a Full Bench decision of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in Mohammed Azmat Ali v. Director of Intermediate Education, 2012 2 KerLT 106 (C. No. 101) A.P.(F.B.).

(3.) The learned counsel has, in this regard, placed reliance on a decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in State of Karnataka & others v. Ameer Bi & Ors., 2007 11 SCC 681), making a specific reference to paragraph 18 thereof. He has contended that to be kept out of the jurisdictional purview of this Court, or in other words, to confer jurisdiction on the Kerala Administrative Tribunal concerning the service dispute, the employee ought to be holding a civil post.