PONDICHERRY HOUSING BOARD EMPLOYEES UNION REPRESENTED BY ITS PRESIDENT, P.ISWARANE ANNA NAGAR Vs. GOVERNMENT OF PUDUCHERRY, REPRESENTED BY ITS SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT, (HOUSING), PUDUCHERRY - 5.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Writ Petition has been filed challenging the resolution Nos.15 and 19 dtd. 2/11/2012 that was passed in the 118th Board meeting of the Pondicherry Housing Board and to declare the same as illegal, incompetent and without jurisdiction.

(2.) The petitioner is a registered union which espouses cause of the employees of the Puducherry Housing Board. The union has approached this Court with a grievance that the Housing Board has virtually sold plots at a throw-away price to the encroachers who were occupying the property and who claimed themselves to be distressed purchasers. According to the petitioner union, the Board approved a proposal in the 116th Board meeting and two resolutions that were passed by the Board have been made a subject matter of challenge in this Writ Petition. Resolution No.15 pertains to the reinstatement of an employee who was the brain behind the illegal sale of the plots belonging to the Housing Board. Resolution No.19 was a resolution that was passed in the meeting whereby it was decided to convert the property into a layout and to sell them as plots to persons who have encroached upon the property at a throw-away price when the market value was much higher on the relevant date. The petitioner union has questioned the right and power of the Chairman to have reviewed his earlier orders and also the overall power of the Board in selling the property at a throw-away price to the encroachers even without inviting applications and allotting the plots through a public auction. Accordingly the petitioner union has sought for a declaration to declare resolution Nos.15 and 19 as illegal and without jurisdiction.

(3.) The second respondent has filed a counter affidavit. This counter affidavit virtually supports the cause taken up by the petitioner union. The sequence of events as pleaded in the counter affidavit are extracted hereunder:-