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Judgment
N.K. Sodhi, J.—This order will dispose of a bunch of eight writ petitions Nos. 19230 to 19237 of 1997 in which common questions of law and fact arise. Since arguments were addressed in civil writ petition No. 19230 of 1997, the facts are being taken from this case.
Petitioners are employees of the Umarpur Co-operative Credit and Service Society Ltd., Umarpur Tehsil Indri District Karnal (for short the society). Petitioner No. 1 is working as a Clerk since 8-5-1989 and petitioner No. 2 as Salesman since 3-8-1976 whereas petitioner No. 3 is working as a peon since 3-1-1976. Their services were regularised on 4-2-1993. The grievance made in this petition filed under Art. 226 of the Constitution is that even though services of the petitioners have been regularised they are being paid a consolidated salary and the prayer made by them is for a mandamus to the society to grant them a regular scale of pay at par with the employees of the State of Haryana. Reliance has been placed by the petitioners on a decision of this Court in Balbir Singh v. Samaspur Co-operative Credit and Service Society Ltd., Civil Writ Petition No. 11147 of 1995 decided on 13-11-1995.
In response to the notice of motion, respondents Nos. 2 and 3 have put in appearance and contested the writ petition. The plea of the petitioners has been controverted on the ground that service conditions of the employees of all the Primary Co-operative Credit and Service Societies in the State of Haryana are governed by Rules which came into force with effect from 16-11-1992 and that they are being paid emoluments in terms of Rule 9 of the Rules. It is also pleaded that the judgment of this Court in Balbir Singh''s case (supra) is not applicable to the facts of the present case and that the petitioners are not entitled to a regular scale of pay at par with the employees of the State Government.
Counsel for the parties have been heard. We are of the opinion that the writ petitions are devoid of any merit and deserve to be dismissed. Co-operative Credit and Service Societies in the State are operating as Mini Banks and each such society in the district of Karnal is a member of Karnal Central Co-operative Bank Ltd. Karnal. There is no gainsaying the fact that service conditions of all the employees of the Credit and Service Societies like the petitioners are governed by the Primary Co-operative Credit and Services Societies Staff Services Rules 1992 (hereinafter called the Rules). A perusal of these Rules would show that the Primary Co-operative Credit and Service Societies in the State have been classified on the basis of their turn over and the staff strength has been approved for each category as is shown in Annexure I to the Rules. The scale of pay and emoluments payable to the employees of the societies is as shown in Rule 9 of the Rules which is reproduced hereunder for facility of reference :
"9. Scale of Pay and Emoluments. - The classification of the Societies on business turnover basis and the staff strength approved for each category has been shown in Annexure 1. The salary and consolidated emoluments of various categories of employees shall be as under :
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.1 Category : Salesman Consolidated salary. a) Societies under category III Consolidated salary of Rs. 875/- p.m. & IV of Annexure I with annual increment of Rs. 20/- for Ist 5 years, Rs. 25/- p.a. for next 7 years and Rs. 30/- for next ten years. b) Society under Category V of Consolidated salary of Rs. 1000/- Annexure I p.m. with annual increment of Rs. 25/- for Ist six years, @ 30/- p.a. for next 10 years and @ Rs. 50/- p.a. for next 6 years. c) Society under Category VI & Consolidated salary of Rs. 1200/- VII of Annexure I p.a. with annual increment of Rs. 30/- p.a. for Ist 10 years, Rs. 50/- p.a. for next 10 years. The amount of annual increment would be raised to Rs. 100/- p.a. If there is an increase in fertilizers sale of 100 MT over & above the minimum level of 500 MT for category (VI) & (VII) during preceding year. 9.2 Category : Clerk-cum-Cashier a) Societies at (V) & (VI) of Consolidated salary of Rs. 875/- Annexure I with annual increment of Rs. 20/- for Ist 5 years, Rs. 25/- for next 9 years & Rs. 30/- for next 10 years. A cash allowance of Rs. 100/- p.m. if cash is actually handled or the deposits exceed Rs. 10.00 lacs. b) Society at (VII) of Annexure I Consolidated salary of Rs. 1000/- p.m. with annual increment of Rs. 25/- for Ist 8 years, Rs. 30/- for next 5 years with cash allowance Rs. 100/- p.m. if cash is handled. 9.3 Peon-cum-Chowkidar/ Consolidated salary of Rs. 800/- Chowkidar-cum-guard with annual increment of Rs. 20/- for Ist 10 years & Rs. 25/- for next 10 years, Rs. 50/- p.m. as gun allowance if the gun is actually handled by guard. 9.4 Part time Consolidated salary of Rs. 500/- peon-cum-Chowkidar-Weighman. p.m. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Note : Annual increment shall be allowed subject to the condition that there is 10% increase in non credit gross business of a society.
All these categories shall be entitled for business promotion incentive to be decided by HARCO Bank with the prior approval of Registrar.
Note : This shall not violate the provisions of the Minimum Wages."
Annexure-I to the Rules may also be noticed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- S. No. Classification of Establishment Sanctioned Societies according strength to business turnover ---------------------------------------------------------------------- i) Societies with loans 1. Secretary 1 outstanding up to 5 (Addl. : Charge) lacs with or without 2. One chowkidar 1 fertilizer or (Part time) consumer business ii) Societies with loans 1. Secretary 1 outstanding from 5 lacs 2. One chowkidar- 1 to 10 lacs with no cum-Peon other business (Part time) iii) Societies with loans 1. Secretary outstanding between 5 2. Salesman 1 lacs to 10 lacs with 3. One part time input sale of 100 tons or peon-cum-chowkidar 1 3 lacs and consumer goods worth Rs. 72,000/- p.a. iv) Societies with loans 1. Secretary 1 outstanding between 10 2. Salesman 1 lacs to 15 lacs with 3. Peon-cum-chowkidar agri. inputs business of 100 MT or say above 4 lacs, consumer goods up to 1 lac p.a. v) Societies with loans 1. Secretary business between 15 lacs 2. Salesman 1 and 25 lacs with 3. Clerk-cum-Cashier 1 inputs business of 250 4. Peon-cum-Chowkidar 1 tons or say above 8 lacs and consumer business above 1 lac p.a. vi) Societies with loans 1. Secretary of selection outstanding between 25 grade 1 lacs to 40 lacs 2. Clerk-cum-Cashier 1 Inputs business of 500 MT 3. Salesman 1 or say 15 lacs and 4. Peon-cum-Chowkidar 1 consumer business of 2.00 lacs p.a. Deposits of 10.00 lacs 5. Addl : Clerk for 1 deposits of Rs. 10.00 lacs & above vii) Loans outstanding above 1. One Manager in the 40 lacs grade of Jr. Actt. of CCB 1 Inputs-Business above 500 2. One clerk (Addl. Clerk 1 MT or above 15 lacs. for Addl. Deposits of Rs. 10.00 lacs.) 3. One Cashier 1 Consumer business above 4. One Salesman One 2.00 lacs Chowkidar-Guard 1 Deposits up to 10 lacs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Note : Norms for classification of society shall be reviewed every year."
A perusal of the aforesaid provisions would show that the societies which are operating as Mini Banks in villages have a limited sanctioned strength of employees not exceeding more than two or three in each society and that the classification of the societies is based on their turn over and the staff strength accordingly approved. The paying capacity of the society is obviously limited and, therefore, the Rules provide that the employees would be given a consolidated salary which is not less than the minimum wage fixed in the State. The nature of duties performed by the employees of these societies and their responsibilities are altogether different from the nature of the State Government working in different departments. In the very nature of things, the employees of the societies cannot be treated at par with the State Government employees and so the claim for parity with the State Government employees, is rather too far fetched. They are governed by the Rules which clearly provide for a consolidated salary and it cannot, therefore, be said that the respondents are in any way acting arbitrarily in not giving them a regular scale of pay. It may be mentioned that the validity of the Rules is not under challenge before us.
Now coming to the judgment of this Court in Balbir Singh''s case (supra) on which strong reliance has been placed by the learned counsel for the petitioners. In that case, the Co-operative Credit and Service Society was paying a regular scale of pay to some of its employee and even though the services of the petitioners therein had also been regularised they were being discriminated and given only a consolidated salary. It was in these circumstances that the Court directed that the petitioners therein should also be given a regular scale of pay which the society was paying to its other regular employees. In the case before us, it is not in dispute that the society is paying a consolidated salary to all its employees. The ratio of Balbir Singh''s case (supra) will, therefore, not apply to the case of petitioners herein.
In the result, the writ petitions fail and the same stand dismissed with no order as to costs.
Petition dismissed.