P MARAGATHAMANI Vs. BHARAT HEAVY ELECTRICALS LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) WHETHER the suit in Civil Court for declaration that a person belongs to a particular community and for mandatory injunction, directing the authorities to issue community certificate in pursuance of the said declaration and it is binding on the said authorities, is maintainable or not? the above is the question, posed before this Full Bench.

(2.) THE facts leading to the reference of the point in issue to this full Bench for determination, in short, are as follows :

(3.) THE question put in issue was raised earlier on various occasions before different learned single Judges. Those learned single Judges, in their separate orders, expressing one view, held that civil suit is maintainable and the decree passed by the Civil Court is binding on the authorities. Following are the decisions : (i) 2000 (II) CTC 425 (State of Tamil Nadu v. Durairaj); (ii) 2000 (III) CTC 273 (State of Tamil Nadu v. K. Navamani); (iii) 2001 Writ L. R. 126 (Ayyappan v. District Collector, tiruchirapalli) and (iv) 2003 (2) L. W. 526 (K. Venugopal v. State of Tamil Nadu) : but, a contra view has been taken by a Division Bench of this Court, observing that the view expressed by the learned single Judges is totally wrong in view of the decisions of the Supreme Court in Gurusamy's case (1997 (3) SUPREME court CASES 542) and Kumari Madhuri Patil's case (1994 (6) SCC 241) and held that a civil suit for a decree of declaration and mandamus to the authorities to issue community certificate is not maintainable. This is reported in 2002 (3) CTC 411 ( Union of India v. The Registrar, Central Administrative tribunal, Chennai ).