BALBIR SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this common judgment, two petitions, viz. (1) Civil Writ Petition No. 19293 of 2009 titled as 'Balbir Singh and Ors. v. State of Punjab and Ors. Civil Writ Petition No. 19293 of 2009' and (2) Civil Writ Petition No. 19331 of 2009 titled as 'Kashmiri Lal and Ors. v. State of Punjab and Ors. Civil Writ Petition No. 19331 of 2009' shall be decided together.

(2.) For facility of reference, the facts are being gathered from Civil Writ Petition No. 19293 of 2009.

(3.) In the present writ petition, a prayer has been made that the order (Annexure P-20) dated 19th October, 2009 passed by Respondent No. 1-Financial Commissioner, Co-operation, Punjab, be quashed, whereby the order (Annexure P-15) dated 24th December, 2008 passed by the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Punjab was set aside. Petitioners are the employees of Dinanagar Marketing-cum-Processing Society Ltd., Dinanagar (hereinafter referred to as, 'the Society'), which statedly is a Cooperative Society registered under the provisions of Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as, 'the Act'). Balbir Singh-Petitioner No. 1 was appointed as a Manager on 1st August, 1992; Raj Singh-Petitioner No. 2 as an Accountant on 10th August, 1992; Shanti Saroop-Petitioner No. 3 as a Salesman on 1st July, 1993; Inderjit Singh-Petitioner No. 4 as a Salesman on 30th May, 1993; Tarsem Lal Petitioner No. 5 as a Peon on 1st June, 1992 and Shallinder Singh Petitioner No. 6 as a Salesman on 9th September, 1994. It is pleaded in the writ petition that the Employees Union of Cooperative Marketing-cum-Processing Societies had given a representation to the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Punjab requesting that various Cooperative Societies established in the State of Punjab be amalgamated with the Punjab Cooperative Supply & Marketing Federation Ltd., Chandigarh (hereinafter referred to as, 'the MARKFED'). In pursuance of the representation submitted, it is stated that a meeting was held on 24th August, 2006 under the chairmanship of the Financial Commissioner, Cooperation, Punjab, Chandigarh. The decision of the meeting, it is stated, is reflected in letter (Annexure P-2) dated 14th September, 2006, which reads as under: