S S VISWANATHAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA MADRAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Letters Patent Appeal has been instituted by one S. S. Viswanathan, who filed O. S. No. 544 of 1957 in the City Civil Court, Madras, for recovery of an amount of Rs. 1,582-12-0, being the arrears of salary and provident fund contribution, and for costs, against the General Manager, Southern Railway, madras. The suit was originally dismissed and it went up in appeal to the learned first Additional Judge of the City Civil Court, who thought that the plaintiff was entitled to the decree and he decreed the suit. The matter came up before kunhamed Kutti J. in S. A. No. 418 of 1961, and the learned judge allowed the second appeal by the Union of India, represented by the General Manager, southern Railway, Madras, and held that the claim for special provident fund contribution ought not to have been decreed. To the extent to which the second appeal was allowed, the learned Judge granted leave.

(2.) HENCE, the only point involved in this Letters Patent Appeal by the plaintiff (S. S. Viswanathan) is the question whether, under the circumstances of the case, he could institute such as action in common law for recovery of the special provident fund contribution, which the Railway declined to contribute.

(3.) BEFORE proceeding to the question whether such a remedy could possibly lie, the admitted rules governing this may be briefly referred to. Under Rule 1314 of the Indian Railway Establishment Code, Vol. I, if a subscriber, being a non-gazetted officer, retired, and