LICENSED COOLIE PORTERS ASSOCIATION (AITUC), THRISSUR Vs. SENIOR DIVISIONAL MANAGER (COMMERCIAL), SOUTHERN RAILWAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Introduction: The appellant, a licenced Coolie Porters' Association, having its operations at Thrissur Railway Station, questions the judgment dated 19/01/2017 in W. P. (C) No. 35959 of 2015.

(2.) As seen from the impugned judgment, it refers to the Ext.R3(a) judgment in W. P. (C) No. 11732 of 2010 and holds that the appellant association is entitled to handle luggage, leaving aside the parcels entrusted to the third respondent through Ext.P3 agreement. The appellant association is before us asserting that neither judgment - the one in W. P. (C) No. 35959 of 2015 or the one in W. P. (C) No. 35959 of 2017, now impugned - definitionally demarcated the luggage and the parcel. So the ambiguity remains and the controversy persists.

(3.) The Controversy: The appellant association at Thrissur Railway Station has 65 licensed porters as its members. The President of India, acting through the Divisional Railway Manager (Commercial), granted licence to each of them, Ext.P1 being one such deed of licence. Thus licensed, the members of the appellant association have the right to handle the passenger luggage at Thrissur Railway Station - carried by the passenger either in the compartment or through the brake van.