BIRDHILAL Vs. KOTA CENTRAL CO OPERATIVE BANK LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition can be disposed of on a very short point without entering into the merits of the claim of the petitioner.

(2.) IT is the admitted-case of the parties that the petitioner was an employee of the Kota Central Co-operative Bank Ltd. Kota (hereinafter referred to as "the Bank") and that he was removed from the service of the Bank with effect from Aug. 1, 1957 by the order dated July 30,1957 on the ground that owing to the curtailment of the work of the Bank, the services of the petitioner were no longer required and the management of the Bank decided to retrench the Deti-tioner from the service of the Bank. The petitioner approached the Registrar Co-operative Societies, Rajasthan, Jaipur by way of a claim petition under Sec. 61 of the Rajasthan Co-operative Societies Act, 1953 (hereinafter called as "the Act") and claimed re-instatement with full back wages, on the ground that the petitioner was not awarded retrenchment compensation at the time when the notice dispensing with his services was served upon him and, thus, the provisions of Secs. 25F and 25J of the Industrial Disputes Act were violated. The Registrar, Co-operative Societies, referred the matter to an Arbitrator, who by his order dated February 29, 1968 accepted the claim of the petitioner in part and although the Arbitrator did not pass an order regarding the re-instatement of the petitioner in the service of the Bank, yet he awarded the petitioner 15 months' salary as gratuity, by way of compensation and Rs. 60/- as costs. IT may be observed here that reinstatement was not allowed by the Arbitrator in view of the fact that the petitioner had already attained the age of supernnua-tion i.e. 55 years, even before the Arbitrator decided the matter.

(3.) IN view of the aforesaid pronouncements of their Lordships of the Supreme Court it can undoubtedly be held that the relief of re-instatement with full back wages claimed by the petitioner, on the basis of the alleged violation of certain provisions of the INdustrial Disputes Act, could not be granted to him either by a Civil Court or by an Authority or Tribunal constituted under the Co-operative Societies Act. The finding of the Tribunal in this respect must, therefore, be upheld.) Consequently, the writ petition has no force and the same is dismissed. However, the parties are left to bear their own costs of the present proceedings.