Patna High Court
Case Details
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.4784 of 2005 ====================================================== 1. Ram Nandan Singh son of Late Shyam Lal Singh, Resident of Village Chakhajari Police Station Hilsa, District-Nalanda. 2. Ram Chandra Prasad son of Late Khannu Prasad, Resident of Village Korthu, Police Station Modanganj, Julfipur, District-Nalanda. .... .... Petitioners. Versus 1. The State Of Bihar through Secretary, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar New Secretariat, Patna. 2. The Registrar, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 3. The Managing Director-Cum-Member Secretary, the Nalanda Central Co-Operative Bank Ltd. Biharsharif (Nalanda). 4. The District Co-operative Officer, Nalanda, Biharsharif. .... .... Respondents ====================================================== with Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.5199 of 2005 ====================================================== 1. Lal Bahadur Singh son of Late Nakchedi Singh, resident of village Pachrukhi, P.O. and Police Station Pachrukhi, District-Siwan. 2. Yogendra Kumar Singh, son of Sri Jay Karan Singh, Resident of Village Pinarbuekala, Police Station Pachrukhi, District-Siwan. 3. Raja Lal Singh son of Late Suraj Singh, Resident of Village Surwala, Police Station Siwan Muffasil, District-Siwan. Versus .... .... Petitioners 1. The State of Bihar through Secretary, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 2. The Registrar, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 3. The Managing Director-Cum-Member Secretary, the Siwan Central Co- Operative Bank Ltd. Siwan. 4. The District Magistrate, Saran, Siwan. .... .... Respondents ====================================================== with Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.11053 of 2006 ====================================================== 1. Kapileshwar Sharma son of Late Sahdeo Singh, resident of Village Laldiyara, Police Station Barahia, District Lakhisarai, presently posted at Sharma Tal Sadam Vidha, PACS (Barahia Block) as Paid Manager. 2. Balmiki Dwivedi son of Late Sita Ram Dwivedi, resident of Village Barahia English Ward No.14, Police Station Barahia, District Lakhisarai, present posted at Gangasarai PACS (Barahia Block) as paid Manager.
Legal Reasoning
Patna High Court CWJC No.4784 of 2005 (15) dt.08.01.2013 - 2 - 3. Sunder Prasad Singh son of Late Sahdeo Singh, resident of Village Khuthadih, Police Station Barahia, District Lakhisarai, presently posted at Indunagar, PACS (Barahia PACS) as paid Manager.
Legal Reasoning
4. Mahendra Singh son of Sri Narayan Singh @ Mural Singh, resident of Village Ram Chandra Pipaltal Police Station Barahia, District- Lakhisarai. 5. Sri Narayan Prasad son of Late Karu Prasad, resident of Village Kishanpur, Police Station and District Lakhisarai, presently posted at Birpur Nathanpur and Kishanpur PACS as Paid Manager. .... .... Petitioners Versus 5. The State of Bihar through Commissioner-cum- Secretary, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 6. The Registrar, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 7. The Managing Director-Cum-Member Secretary, the Munger Jamui Central Co-Operative Bank Ltd. Munger. 8. The District Magistrate-cum- Administrative, the Munger Jamui Central Co-operative Bank Ltd. Munger. .... .... Respondents ====================================================== with Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.12254 of 2006 ====================================================== 1. Aditya Kumar son of late Baldeo Singh, resident of Village Jaitpur Police Station Barahia, District-Lakhisarai (then PACS Manager, Raun PACS Alauli Block) presently posted at Block Office Halsi, District- Lakhisarai. 2. Nawal Kishore son of Late Ram Swarath Choudhary, resident of village Rahimpur, Police Station Khagaria, District-Khagaria (then PACS Manager Madar PACS) presently posted at Block Office Sheikhopur Sarai, District-Sheikhpura. 3. Arvind Kumar Chourasia son of Late Bhoomi Mandal, resident of village Mahesh Kunt Police Station Gogari, District-Khagaria (then PACS Manager, Maira Vadia, PACS Block Gogari) presently posted at Ariyari Block, District-Sheikhpura. 4. Suresh Kumar Singh son of Late Parmeshwar Prasad Singh, resident of Village Maheshpur, Police Station Tarapur, District Munger (then PACS Manager Bachouta PACS) presently posted as Live Stock Assistant at Banka District. 5. Shailesh Kumar ‘Shailesh’ son of Late Mahavir Poddar, resident of village Madar, Police Station Bhour Kaudi, District-Khagaria (then PACS Manager, Durgapur PACS) presently posted as Live Stock Assistant at Banka District. 6. Suresh Mukhia son of Late Ram Charitra Mukhia, resident of village Bahadurpur, Police Station Alouli, District Khagaria (then PACS Manager Muzouna PACS) presently posted at Collectoriat Sheikhpura. 7. Janardan Prasad Sah son of Late Ramdhu Sah, resident of village Ramganj, P.O. and Police Station Sansarpur, District-Khagaria (then PACS Manager Ramganj Sansarpur PACS) presently posted at Sub- Divisional Office Balia, Begusarai. Patna High Court CWJC No.4784 of 2005 (15) dt.08.01.2013 - 3 - 8. Jivachh Narayan Sah son of Late Bhoju Sah, resident of village Ramganj, P.O. and P.S. Sansarpur, District Khagaria (then PACS Manager Olapur Gangour PACS) presently posted as Live Stock Assistant at Banka district. 9. Mani Kant Yadav son of Late Anup Lal Yadav, resident of Mohalla Kishan Khad Bhandar, Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Police Station Khagaria, District Khagaria (then PACS Manager, Mathar PACS) presently posted as Live Stock Assistant at Bank District. 10. Naresh Singh son of Late Prabhu Singh, resident of village Khutia chak Hussini Police Station Mansi, District-Khagaria (then PACS Manager Rohiyar Bangalia PACS) presently posted as Live Stock Assistant in the District of Supaul. 11. Bindeshwari Prasad Sah son of Late Jagdish Sah, resident of Village Salim Nagar, Police Station Gogari, District-Khagaria (then PACS Manager, Kolwara PACS) presently posted as Live Stock Assistant at Banka District. Versus .... .... Petitioner/s 1. The State of Bihar through Commissioner-cum- Secretary, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 2 The Registrar, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 3 The Managing Director-Cum-Member Secretary, the Khagaria, District Central Co-Operative Bank Ltd. Khagaria. 4 The District Magistrate-cum Administrate, the Khagaria District Central Co-operative Bank Ltd. Khagaria. .... .... Respondents ====================================================== with Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.14951 of 2007 ====================================================== Upendra Kumar Singh son of Sri Tripit Narayn Singh, resident of Village Abdulla Chak, P.o. Usafa, Police Station Fatuha, District-Patna. .... .... Petitioner. Versus 1. The State of Bihar through Secretary, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 2. The Registrar, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 3. The Managing Director-Cum-Member Secretary, Patliputra Central Co- Operative Bank Ltd. S. P. Verma Road, Patna-800001. ====================================================== with Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.13386 of 2008 ====================================================== Shashi Bhushan Singh son of Late Ram Nandan Singh, resident of Village Kuari Buzurg, Police Station Ganga Bridge Hazipur, District Vaishali at Hazipur. .... .... Petitioner Patna High Court CWJC No.4784 of 2005 (15) dt.08.01.2013 - 4 - 1. The State of Bihar Versus through the Commissioner-cum- Secretary, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 2. The Registrar, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 3. The Managing Director-Cum-Member Secretary, the Vaishali District Central Co-Operative Bank Ltd. At Hazipur. with Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.10976 of 2006 ====================================================== Krishna Chandra Jha son of Late Chandra Shekhar Jha, resident of Village Khuthadih, Police Station Barahia, District Lakhisarai. .... .... Petitioner. Versus 1. The State of Bihar through Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 2. The Registrar, Department of Co-operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 3. The Managing Director-Cum-Member Secretary, the Munger Jamui Central Co-Operative Bank Ltd. Munger. 4. The District Magistrate-cum Administrate, the Munger Jamui Central Co-operative Bank Ltd. Munger. ====================================================== with Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.19817 of 2010 ====================================================== 1. Tripit Narayan Singh son of Late Hirday Narayan Singh, Resident of Vill.- Amokhari, P.S.- Sirdala, Distt.- Nawada. 2. Raghwendra Prasad Singh son of Late Ram Briksh Singh, Resident of Vill.- Repura, P.S.- Sitamarhi, Distt.- Nawada. Versus 1. The State of Bihar through the Secretary Department Of Co-operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 2. The Registrar, Department Of Co-operative, Govt. of Bihar, New .... .... Petitioners Secretariat, Patna. 3. The Managing Director-Cum-Member Secretary, Nawada Central Co- Operative Bank Ltd., Nawada. 4. Managing Director, Bihar State Co-Operative Bank Ltd., Patna. 5. Joint Registrar, Co-Operative Society, Bihar, Patna. .... .... Respondents ====================================================== with Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.3724 of 2011 ====================================================== 1. Ram Lakhan Sharma Son of Late Biso Sharma, Resident of Village Bisar, Police Station Muffasil, District - Gaya. 2. Sri Chand Yadav Son Of Late Gajo Yadav, Resident of Village Bisar, Police Station Muffasil, District - Gaya. Patna High Court CWJC No.4784 of 2005 (15) dt.08.01.2013 - 5 - .... .... Petitioners Versus 1. The State of Bihar through Commissioner-Cum-Secretary, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar New Secretariat, Patna. 2. The Registrar, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 3. The Managing Director-Cum-Member Secretary, the Magadh Central Co-Operative Bank Ltd. Gaya. 4. The Managing Director, Bihar State Co-Operative Bank Ltd. Ashok Raj Path, Patna. .... .... Respondents ====================================================== with Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.6924 of 2011 ====================================================== Girish Sharma son of Late Jagar Nath Sharma, resident of Village Kalanaur, Police Station Makhdumpur, O.P. Tehta, District-Jehanabad. .... .... Petitioner. Versus 1. The State of Bihar through Commissioner-Cum-Secretary, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar New Secretariat, Patna. 2. The Registrar, Department of Co-Operative, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 3. The Managing Director-Cum-Member Secretary, Magadh Central Co- Operative Bank Ltd. Gaya. 4. The Managing Director, Bihar State Co-Operative Bank Ltd. (Apex Bank) Ashok Raj Path, Patna. ====================================================== For the Petitioners : M/s. Aditya Narain Singh & Kundan Kumar Sinha, Advocates. : Mr. R.K.Choubey, S.C. 8 For the State Mr. Ravi Shankar A.C. to S.C. 8 Mr Piyush Lal, A.C. to AAG-I Mr. Ranjeet Kumar Pandey, A.C. to G.P.2 Mr. Vipin Kumar, A.C. to G.P. 8 Mr. Prashant Kumar A.C. to G.P.1 Mr. Shashi Priya Pathak A.C. to AAG 7 Mr. Santosh Kumar A.C. to G.P. 9 Mr. Nirbhay Kumar Singh, G.P. 26 For Bihar State Cooperative Bank Ltd. : Mr. S. N. Pathak, Advocate Mr. Nishi Nath Ojha, Advocate. For Central Co-operative Bank-Khagaria & Nawada : Mr. Purushottam Jha, Advocate. For Central Co-operative Bank- Gaya, Munger & Vaishali: Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Advocate. Patna High Court CWJC No.4784 of 2005 (15) dt.08.01.2013 - 6 - For Patliputra Central Co-operative Bank : M/s. Kalyan Shankar, Bindhyachal Rai & Manoj Kumar ====================================================== PRESENT: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE S.N. HUSSAIN
Decision
ORDER 15 08.01.2013 All the aforesaid writ petitions have been heard together as analogous cases and are being decided by this common order as the reliefs claimed against the respondents by different petitioners are exactly the same and even the grounds taken for grant of the reliefs are similar. 2. It is not in dispute that Primary Agriculture Credit Societies ((hereinafter referred to as ‘the PACS’ for the sake of brevity) were created by the State of Bihar, their service conditions being governed by Section 66 B of the Bihar Cooperative Societies Act, 1935 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’ for the sake of brevity) and Rule 33 of the Bihar Cooperative Societies Rules, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Rules’ for the sake of brevity). 3. All the petitioners were PACS managers for the relevant time in their respective districts, but by now all of them have left PACS either by retirement or by absorption in Class III posts of Government service as per the order of the Supreme court in case of State of Bihar and others Versus Bihar Rajya Sahkarita Prabhandhak Seva Sangh, Patna and others reported in (1998) 8 SCC 218. 4. These writ petitions have been filed for arrears of salaries and emoluments for different periods before their retirement or before their absorption in government services which are allegedly being Patna High Court CWJC No.4784 of 2005 (15) dt.08.01.2013 - 7 - denied by the respondent-Bank. 5. It is not in dispute that up-till December, 1998 salaries and emoluments were paid to all the PACS managers, but problem arose after the decision of this Court in case of Bihar Rajya Sahkarita Prabandhak Sangh and others Versus The State of Bihar and others reported in 1999 (3) PLJR 110 when the High Court decided that PACS Managers were entitled to D.A. on their salaries as per the Government Circular vide memo no.3608 dated 12.10.2000. 6. The question is as to who would give salaries to petitioners, as PACS Managers were not employees of the concerned Cooperative Bank, rather they were employees of the District Cadre Fund working under the control of District Central Cooperative Banks, the Managing Director of such Banks being ex-officio Secretary of District Cadre Fund. District Cadre Fund created in every district is a corpus created by contributions from PACS, District Central Cooperative Bank and State Cooperative Bank and the custodian and controlling authority of the District Cadre Fund is the Managing Director of the concerned District Central Cooperative Bank upon whom the State Government has given responsibility to pay salaries to PACS Manager from District Cadre Fund. 7. It is not in dispute that payment of salary to PACS Manager is based on his performance as it is provided that if his collection is less than 40% then he has to be removed otherwise the District Central Cooperative Bank would pay salary to PACS Manager from District Cadre Fund from its Account No.1 of the concerned District Cooperative Bank. It is also not in dispute that there are three Patna High Court CWJC No.4784 of 2005 (15) dt.08.01.2013 - 8 - components of the District Cadre Fund, out of which the first is the PACS which has to contribute 1.25% of its collection of short term agricultural loan; the second is the District Central Cooperative Bank which has to contribute 0.75% from the advancement of loan; whereas third is the Bihar State Cooperative Bank which has to contribute 0.30% from the advancement in three instalments, out of which first instalment was to be paid immediately and after receipt of utilization certificate of the first instalment, the second instalment is to be paid and on receipt of utilization certificate of the second instalment the third instalment is to be paid. 8. The claim of the petitioners is that PACS and District Central Cooperative Bank are regularly contributing their shares, but the Bihar State Cooperative Bank after payment of first or in some cases second instalment had stopped contributing its share due to non-supply of utilization certificate for earlier instalment which is clearly due to inefficiency of Managing Director of the District Central Cooperative Bank who is the Secretary of the District Cadre Fund. 9. The further claim of the petitioners is that Government is waiving agricultural loans due to which collection from the farmers by the PACS managers have considerably decreased due to which the District Cadre Fund has been put to loss and no amount is left in the fund for payments to the PACS managers. 10. A bare perusal of the pleadings of parties in these writ cases show that out of the aforesaid three components none of the petitioners have impleaded PACS in any of the writ petitions and only the Managing Director of the District Central Cooperative Bank has Patna High Court CWJC No.4784 of 2005 (15) dt.08.01.2013 - 9 - been impleaded and in some cases even the Bihar State Cooperative Bank has not been impleaded as party respondent although specific claim of the petitioners is denial of their due salaries and emoluments from the District Cadre Fund which has three components, including PACS and the Bihar State Cooperative Bank. 11. In the aforesaid circumstances, the specific claim of the petitioners is that the aforesaid Managing Director has not paid the petitioners’ admitted dues and emoluments due to which the petitioners are being punished for none of their faults. Had they committed the fault of collecting less than the prescribed percentage they could have been removed, but without passing any order of removal the petitioners are being punished in an indirect manner although they have committed no fault at all. 12. For such circumstances, the Cooperative Department, Govt. of Bihar had issued a circular/order dated 31.05.1989 with respect to the PACS, its MD and its Managers in which a provision of appeal to be filed in such situation before the Joint Registrar Cooperative Societies is made. Furthermore, in similar circumstances, a Bench of this Court vide order dated 12.09.2006 had disposed of CWJC No.3283 of 2005 and its seven analogous cases directing the petitioners of those cases to file appeals before the Joint Registrar, Cooperative Societies of their respective districts. 13. In the aforesaid facts and circumstances, all the aforesaid writ petitions are disposed of with liberty to the petitioners to file appeals before the Joint Registrar, Co-operative Societies of their respective district. If such appeals are filed along with all the requisites Patna High Court CWJC No.4784 of 2005 (15) dt.08.01.2013 - 10 - and evidences by the petitioners before such authority within one month from today the concerned Joint Registrar, Cooperative Societies shall consider the delay caused due to pendency of these writ petitions and after giving opportunities of hearing to the parties consider the same in accordance with law and shall decide it by a speaking order within six months from the date of filing of the concerned appeal or appeals. Sunil/- (S.N. Hussain, J)