B.S.V. HANUMANTHA RAO AND ANR. Vs. DEPUTY REGISTRAR OF TRADE UNIONS AND DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF LABOUR ANS ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners, who are two in number, are the employees of Hyderabad Allwyn Limited, Sanathnagar Hyderabad. They have filed this writ petition for a declaration that the amendments approved by the Dy. Registrar of Trade Unions, Hyderabad to the Rules of the Hyderabad Allwyn Workers Union are illegal and invalid. The Hyderabad Allwyn Workers Union, of which these two petitioners are also members, is a trade union registered under the Trade Union Act. As it is common, it is riven with factional fights. The general body of the Trade Union in its meeting held on 22nd Feb. 1986 selected one G. Sanjeeva Reddy, a labour leader of I.N.T.U.C. pursuation as the President of the Trade Union. The general body on 9th Jan. 1986 passed a resolution making amendments and alterations to the Rules of the Trade Union and on 15th May 1986, the amendments and alterations were approved by the Registrar of the Trade Union. These amended Rules provide for the affiliation of the Trade Union with the Indian National Trade Union Congress and make admission to the Trade Union subject to the condition that the workers of the Hyderabad Allwyn Limited accept the policies and programmes of the I.N.T.U.C.

(2.) These Rules provide for forfeiture of the membership on the ground of non-payment of subscription, but reserves the power to the President to extend the voting rights even to such members without payment of the subscription. These Rules also provide for the election of the President and appointment by nomination of other office bearers by the President. The nominated office bearers include 5 Vice Presidents, one General Secretary, not less than 2 Joint Secretaries, not less than 4 Organising Secretaries and one Treasurer. These Rules provide for the Union Election to take place once in two years, and grant powers to the President to appoint the Returning Officers to conductor the elections, including to the post of the President. The President under these Rules will prepare the voters' list. If for any reason these elections could not be conducted by the President at the end of two years of time, the General Body has been given the power to extend the two year term of the President. The President has been given the power to remove, expel or suspend any member of the Union for his anti-Union activities or indisciplined behavior. Above all, those amended Rules provide that the elected President shall remain in full term of years in the office, without anyone having right to pass a no-confidence motion against him. Under the A.P. Trade Union Regulations and more particularly under Regulation 15, the Registrar of Trade Unions has been given the power to register the alterations to the Rules after satisfying him-self that the alterations have been made in the manner laid down by the Rules of the Trade Union and is not inconsistent with any of the provisions of the Trade Union Act. Now, the Trade Union has written on 17th Jan. 1986 to the Registrar informing him of these alterations and amendments. That letter was received by the Registrar on 22nd Jan. 1986. On 15th May 1986, the Registrar has registered these Regulations under Regulation 15. A group of workmen belonging to the petitioners' group complained to the Registrar on 15th Sept. 1986 against the registration. They also complained on 16th Feb. 1987. Both the complaints are, in substance, based upon the allegations that the meeting of the General Body is not a genuine transaction; the signatures of the members who are supposed to have attended that meeting and agreed to the amendments are forged and that those amendments were also inconsistent with the Act. The Registrar, by his replies dated 10th Oct. 1986 and 9th March 1987, had rejected these contentions and upheld his action of registering the amendments. Now, this writ petition has been filed challenging the validity of these amendments.

(3.) It is necessary to mention that the concern of this Court in a matter like this is not with the substance of the amendments but their legality. The Rules are required by the A.P. Trade Union Regulations, 1927, more particularly, Regulations No. 15, to be registered by the Registrar of Trade Unions. That Regulation reads as follows:-