CATTLE FEED PLANT & FARM WORKERS UNION (REGD ) Vs. PUNJAB STATE COOPERATIVE MILK PRODUCERS FEDERATION LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition filed under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner seeks a writ of certiorari quashing impugned notice dated 9.4.1993 (Annexure P-2) whereby the respondent Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited (in short, Federation) has expressed its intention to effect change in Clause 19(x) of Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers Service (Non-Common Cadre) Rules, 1985 thereby withdrawing the facility of encashment of unavailed casual leave upto seven days in a calendar year, provided balance of casual leaves to this extent are at the credit of the concerned employee, at the end of the year as is mentioned in Annexure A, dated 17.4.1993, appended to the aforesaid notice.

(2.) Facts may be noticed briefly. Punjab Dairy Development Corporation Limited, which was incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 had transferred and leased out its assets to the respondent- Federation, a cooperative society registered under the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961 through its Managing Director. In the initial stage, the property was leased out for a period of five years on 9.4.1983 vide their resolution dated 7.4.1983 and the Federation had agreed to take the employees/workers on transfer and deputation basis without the payment of deputation allowance, w.e.f. 9.4.1983. The agreement contained a clause to the effect that the emoluments/benefits which the employees of the Corporation may be enjoying at the time of leasing out assets as per its bye-laws shall be protected. Thus the employees of the erstwhile Corporation became employees of the Federation with continuity of pay scale and the benefits to which they were entitled, were to continue and the agreement was not to curtail such benefits.

(3.) The issue as regards the Federation being a State or an instrumentality of the State under Article 12 of the Constitution of India and amenable to writ jurisdiction of the High Court has been settled by a Division Bench of this Court in CWP No.15293 of 1990 (Dr. K.L. Arora and others v. The Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Punjab and others), decided on March 19, 2009 and held the respondent-Federation to be State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution. Thus, this Court does not deem it appropriate to ponder over this issue again as the State has a deep and pervasive control over the Federation in conformity with the parameters/ guidelines laid down by the Apex Court in RAMANA DAYARAM SHETTY v. THE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY OF INDIA AND ORS., 1979 AIR(SC) 1628