Court No. - 36
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 10651 of 2018 Petitioner :- State Employees Joint, Council U.P. And Another Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Ram Samujh Singh Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Mrs. Sunita Agarwal,J.
The present petition has been filed in representative capacity by the State Employees Joint Council U.P. raising several grievances with regard to the members of the Union who are working on the post of Female Health Workers in the office of the Chief Medical Officer, Jaunpur. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioners that under the memorandum and Article of Association, as per the object of the Association, it can initiate legal proceedings for redressal of grievances of its members relating to their services.
As per contention of learned counsel for the petitioner, the writ petition is maintainable in view of observation of the Full Bench of this Court in Umesh Chand Vinod Kumar Vs. Krishi Utpadan Mandi Samiti, Bharthana and others reported in 1984 LCD 10 in paragraph no.45, which reads as under:-
"The position appears to be that an association of persons, registered or unregistered, can file a petition under Article 226 for enforcement of the rights of its members as distinguished from the enforcement of its own rights
(1) In case members of such an association are themselves unable to approach the court by reason of poverty, disability or socially or economically disadvantaged position (Little Indians").
(2) In case of a public injury leading to public interest litigation; provided the association has some concern deeper than that of a wayfarer or a busybody, i.e., it has a special interest in the subject-matter.
(3) Where the rules or regulations of the association specifically authorise it to take legal proceedings on behalf of its members, so that any order passed by the court in such proceedings will be binding on the members.
In other cases an association, whether registered or unregistered, cannot maintain a petition under Article 226 for the enforcement or protection of the fights of its members, as distinguished from the enforcement at its own rights."
The specific reference has been given to answer of the question no.1 which was relating to right of Association to file a writ petition under Article 226 for enforcement of rights of its member. The Full Bench of this Court while dealing with the said issue has given answer to the said question in the manner that an Association can maintain a writ petition for enforcement of rights of its members who are themselves unable to approach the Court by reasons of poverty, disability or socially or economically disadvantaged position "little Indian".
The reliance placed by learned counsel for the petitioner upon the above noted answer given by the Full Bench is misinterpretation of the judgement, in as much as, the members of petitioner's Association do not qualify the meaning of "little Indian". Meaning thereby, they are not such persons who are unable to approach the Court on account of the poverty, disability or belong to socially and economically disadvantaged group for the simple reason that they are working on the post of Health Workers in the department concerned.
Even otherwise, the grievances raised by the petitioner with regard to the members of the Association relate to their own individual grievances relating to the services rendered by them in the department concerned. It would not be possible for the Court to deal with the individual grievances in the present writ petition filed in representative capacity. It is settled principle of law that any grievances relating to services of an employee is individual and it cannot be a common cause.
In view thereof, this Court is of the view that the writ petition filed in representative capacity raising grievances of the members of Association relating to their services is not entertainable. The same is, accordingly, dismissed. However, it is open for the members individually to raise their grievances by filing separate writ petition.
The writ petition is dismissed with liberty as aforesaid.
Order Date :- 26.4.2018 Himanshu