All India SC/ST Railway Employees Association and M.P. Kumar vs The Chairman, Railway Board and Others

P. Sathasivam, J.—Since the issues raised in these writ petitions are inter-connected, they are being disposed of by the following common

order.

All India Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Railway Employees Association represented by its Working President Dr. C. Balakrishnan, has

filed Writ Petition No. 41577 of 2002, praying for issuance of writ of mandamus directing the respondents to conduct elections by appointing an

Advocate Commissioner or any other authority as per the bye-laws of the petitioner Association and circulate the results to all the Divisions of the

petitioner Association.

One M.P. Kumar, Member of All India Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe Railway Employees Association has filed Writ Petition No. 157 of

2003, seeking to issue a writ of mandamus directing the respondents 1 to 12 therein not to recognise any proposed Zonal elections as there is no

Central Executive Committee in existence now, consequently, direct the respondents 1 to 12 not to approve the list of Office bearers if any.

The case of the petitioner in W.P. No. 45177 of 2002 is briefly stated hereunder:

According to the petitioner, he is the President of the petitioner Association and is looking after the welfare of the employees belonging to the

Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe, who are working in the Railways. The respondents have held elections to various posts for the Office

bearers of the petitioner Association, as per the bye-laws of the Association. The elections are conducted for the Executive Committee, Zonal

Committee and for Divisions. The Executive Committee is the Central Committee, which represents through out India and there are nine Zonal

Committees and many Divisions within the Zonal Committee. The election to the Zonal Executive Committee for South Zone was under dispute

previously and for the year 2002, elections were conducted as per the directions of this Court, wherein an Advocate Commissioner was appointed

to conduct the elections. The election was conducted by the Advocate Commissioner and results were declared on 16.04.2002. There were

several irregularities, which led to filing of the suit in O.S. No. 2658 of 2002 as against the elected members of the Zonal Committees and the said

suit is pending as on date. As per the bye-laws, the Central Executive Committee, Zonal Committee will have to call for the elections for Zonal

Committees. Since there is a dispute with regard to the said Committee, the respondents ought to have initiated steps and they have not called for

or notified for conducting the elections till date and hence they approached this Court for necessary relief.

In W.P. No. 157 of 2003, it is stated that in view of disputes among the elections of various bodies and of the fact that the Central Executive

Committee is not constituted, the election if any held to the Zonal Executive Committee is against the bye-law and void in law and hence the

petitioner prayed for a direction to respondents 1 to 12 therein not to recognise any proposed Zonal elections and also not to approve the list of

Office bearers if any.

Heard the learned counsel for the respective parties.

I have already referred to the claim of the Working President of All India Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe Railway Employees Association

and the stand taken by M.P. Kumar, one of the Members of the very same Association. Further, the particulars furnished by both parties and the

information furnished by the Railway Administration show that the Central Executive Committee, which is the Supreme Body, has not been

constituted so far by way of separate election and hence there cannot be any direction by this Court for Zonal Executive Committee election

against the bye-laws. After going through the various averments made by the Working President and one of the Members of the petitioner

Association, it is clear that there is a dispute among various factions. No doubt, this Court in W.P. No. 19350 of 2001 dated 13.12.2002,

appointed an Advocate Commissioner to hold elections for the year 2002. It is also seen that pursuant to the said direction, the Advocate

Commissioner conducted the election and the results were declared on 12.02.2002. Even according to the Working President, since there were

several irregularities on the conduct of elections, he approached the Civil Court by filing O.S. No. 2658 of 2002 against the elected members of

the Zonal Committees and the said suit is still pending before the City Civil Court, Chennai.

As stated earlier, the facts furnished clearly show that there are disputes as to who the rightful office bearers of the Association or for the several

posts provided for in the bye-laws of the Association. It is a settled law that these disputed questions of fact cannot be gone into by this Court

exercising jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. As a matter of fact, in the earlier writ petitions, namely W.P.Nos.11513,

12584 and 16377 of 1996 filed by the same Association, R. Jayasimha Babu, J., in his order dated 22.04.1997 has held that,

....In these writ petitions, this Court cannot go into all these disputed questions of fact and declare one or the other sets or faction as the persons

duly elected to hold office, and thereafter, direct the Railways to circulate the names of such persons. ..

The learned Judge has further held that,

... These writ petitions cannot therefore be made the platform for advancing rival claims of the petitioners for various elected offices of these

Associations. It is always open to them to agitate their claims to the office in the appropriate civil Court. ...

After holding so, all the said writ petitions were dismissed with a liberty to the concerned parties to approach the appropriate Civil Court which has

the necessary jurisdiction for resolving their dispute as to who the rightful office bearers or as to when and under whose supervision fresh election

should be conducted. The said observation and the ultimate conclusion are applicable to the claim of the Working President, namely the petitioner

in W.P. No. 45177 of 20002. While endorsing the same that this Court cannot go into all the disputed questions of fact and in the light of the fact

that the Supreme Body, namely, the Central Executive Committee has not been constituted so far, no relief can be granted in W.P. No. 45177 of

2002; accordingly, the same is dismissed with a liberty to the petitioner to approach the competent civil Court to vindicate their grievance.

In the light of the said conclusion, no direction need be issued in W.P. No. 157 of 2003; accordingly, the same is also dismissed. No costs in both

the Writ Petitions. Consequently, connected WPMPs., are also dismissed.