MOHINDER KUMAR Vs. DISTRICT ELECTION OFFICER SANGRUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two petitions have been filed by the employees of Sant Longowal Engineering and Technology Society, Longowal, District Sangrur, for quashing the letter No. 78 dated 14-1-1997 and orders Annexures P2/1 to P2/25 (attached with Annexure P-2 in C.W.P. No. 1257 of 1997) and Annexures P2/1 to P2/16 (attached with Annexure P-2 in C.W.P. No. 1258 of 1997). In view of the identical nature of relief claimed in the two petitions we are deciding them by a common order.

(2.) FACTS:The petitioners of both the petitions are employed against different posts in the service of Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology Society, Longowal (for short 'the Institutes'). The Institute is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1960. Vide letters dated 14-1-1997 and 17-1-1997 written respectively by the Returning Officer, 85 Dhanola Vidhan Sabha constituency, Sangrur and the SubDivisional Officer (Civil) Returning Officer, 88 Sunam Vidhan Sabha constituency to the Institute these officers conveyed the decision of the District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Sangrur. regarding the appointment of the employees of the Institute as Presiding Officers/ Polling Officers with a direction that all the employees be served with the orders enclosed with those letters and they be asked to prepare themselves for election duties. In the letter dated 17-1-1997 which has been enclosed as Annexure P-2 with C.W.P. 1257 of 1997 the Sub-Divisional Officer also mentioned that any negligence with regard to election duty would invite action under Section 134 of the Representation of People Act, 1951. On receipt of these communications the President of Sliet Faculty Association which is a representative body of the employees of the Institute wrote to the District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Sangrur that in view of the judgments of the Supreme Court and of Allahabad High Court the employees of autonomous body like the Institute could not be put on election duties because they do not come under the definition of "such staff' under Article 324(6) of the Constitution of India. A copy of the order passed by the Allahabad High Court on 30-4-1996 in a writ petition filed by U.P. Cooperative Bank Employees Union, was also enclosed with the said letter. The Director of the Institute also wrote to the Deputy Commissioner, Sangrur requesting him to cancel the duties of the teachers on the ground that the courses were running behind the schedule. He also invited the attention of the Deputy Commissioner to the fact that the Institute was an autonomous body and a registered Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.

(3.) Sliet Faculty Association, Sangrur filed C.W.P. No. 893 of 1997 for quashing the orders issued at the behest of respondent No. 1 assigning election duties to the employees of the Institute. That petition was dismissed by this Court on 22-1-1997 on the ground that the Association did not have the locus standi. Thereafter the petitioners have jointly filed these petitions and have made the prayers as aforementioned. The main ground on which the petitioners have questioned the legality of the impugned orders is that respondent No. 1 is not vested with the jurisdiction to force the employees of the Institute to render duties in connection with election because they are neither the Government servants nor are they employees of the 'local authority'.