MURALEEDHARAN Vs. PRINCIPAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a candidate for admission to the part-time LL.B. (evening course) in the Government Law College, Calicut. 30% of the total number of seats are reserved for the State Government employees. It is the petitioner's case that he is a State Government employee, that he is entitled to one of the 30% seats so reserved and that he has obtained more marks than those persons who are included in that category and he has been wrongly denied admission to the LL.B. (evening course). The question for consideration is whether the petitioner is a Government employee entitled to claim one of the reserved seats for admission to the first year LL.B. in the Government Law College (evening), Calicut.

(2.) The petitioner was initially appointed in the Public Health Engineering Department of the Government of Kerala. Subsequently he was transferred to the Kerala Water Authority constituted under the Kerala Water Supply and Sewerage Act, 1986, Act 14 of 1986. The contention of the petitioner is that notwithstanding the fact that he is now an employee of the Water Authority constituted under the Act, he continues to be an employee of the Government and he is entitled to one of there served seats. There can be no doubt that the petitioner is not a Government employee as long as he is an employee of the Kerala Water Authority, a corporation constituted under the Act, and after he has been transferred from the Government service to the service of the Corporation. This matter is settled by the decision of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Sukhdev Singh v. Bhagatram, AIR 1975 SC 1331 where it has been held thus in Para.67:

(3.) The Water Authority is a State within the meaning of Art.12 of the Constitution amenable to the writ jurisdiction of this Court under Art.226of the Constitution of India for enforcement of fundamental rights. But its employees cannot be deemed or treated as government employees.