VIJAYARANGAM T N Vs. SOUTHERN RAILWAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this writ petition, the petitioner raises a question of general importance, which affects the seniority of about 3,000 persons who were directly required for the grainshop establishment in the Southern Railway. The impugned orders of the Railway Board are to the effect that in the case of the persons who are directly recruited in the grainshop establishment their services would not be taken into consideration, when they are absorbed in the other cadres in the railway administration.

(2.) DURING the period of the Second World War it was extremely difficult to procure the essential foodgrains.

(3.) IN December 1949, the B. N. Rao Committee suggested the opening of cost-price grain-shop for railway employees. The Railway Board favoured the establishment of such shops not only as possible means of meeting the food shortage but also as an additional cost of living. In April 1943, the Railway Board reiterated the Government's policy to stabilize prices, as far as possible, by supplying the necessaries of life to the staff at reasonable prices. The system of grain-shop facilities continued even after the war. But in 1947, concern over the increasing losses incurred by the railway on the grain-shop was expressed in the Parliament. The Government of India, thereupon, set up a committee known as the Santhanam Committee, which recommended the gradual abolition of the grainshop facilities.