TEJA PRASAD Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Natural justice is once again the central theme of debate in these writ petitions. Issues are whether sub-section (2) of section 66B of the Bihar Co-operative Societies Act, by necessary implication, excludes the application of the rules of natural justice ; and even if it does, whether the procedure adopted for cancelling the appointments of the petitioners without any enquiry determining the legality or nullity of their appointments can be said to be fair. Incidentally, in order to escape its rigour, if I may say so, vires of the provision has also been challenged. The writ petitions arising out of the cancellation of appointments, as they are, attempt has also been made to show that not only their appointments do not suffer from any infirmity but also that the grounds of cancellation are irrelevant, improper and arbitrary. This being the broad spectrum of the controversy, the details of the submissions will be noticed at the appropriate place in the judgment.

(2.) The venue of the dispute in the Bihar State Scheduled Castes Cooperative Development Corporation Limited (in short 'the Corporation') about which there is no dispute at the Bar that it is an instrumentality of the State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution. The Corporation, a society registered under the Bihar Co-operative Societies Act, 1935 (in short 'the Act'), was established with loud sounding objects as mentioned in its bye-laws to ameliorate and promote the interest of the members of the scheduled castes. One can almost take judicial notice of the fact that most of the 'societies' although thriving on State assistance became sick because of the mal-administration and financial and administrative vagaries, one of the reasons in particular being over-staffing and indiscriminate, illegal and wrong appointments. The co-operative movement over the decades has remained a non-starter as an instrument of socio-economic development in the State of Bihar.

(3.) Being aware of the on going large scale appointments in the various societies without following any norms and contrary to the constitutional provisions, section 66 B was inserted by Bihar Act 39 of 1982 conferring upon the State Government the power, inter alia, to determine from time to time by special or general order the nature and number of posts, qualifications, mode of recruitment, conditions of service etc. of the personnel in the Co-operative Societies. In 1989 a new sub-section, numbered as sub-section (2) was inserted, deemed always to have been so inserted, by Bihar Act 5 of 1989 repealing the previous Ordinances on the subject, according to which any appointment made in contravention of the aforementioned order of the State Government would be void 'as if no such appointment ever existed'. I shall refer to the provision in details since it comprises the core of controversy.