The High Court
Case Details
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK W.P.(C) No. 35487 OF 2022 Jayashree Chemical Employees Union, Ganjam. …. Petitioners Mr.A.Tripathy, Adv. -versus- State of Odisha & Ors. …. Opp.Parties
Legal Reasoning
Mr.Sonak Mishra,ASC Mr.S.Senapati, Adv. (For O.P.No.5) CORAM: JUSTICE BISWANATH RATH JUSTICE M.S.SAHOO Order No. 09.
Decision
ORDER 03.05.2023 1. 2. Heard learned counsel appearing for the parties. This writ petition involves the following prayer: <It is, therefore, humbly prayed that this Hon9ble Court may graciously be pleased to admit the writ petition, issue rule nisi calling upon the opposite parties to show cause as to why the letter dated 07.12.2022 passed by the District Labour Officer, Chhatrapur under (Annexure-1) shall not be quashed. If the opposite parties fails to show cause or show insufficient show cause shown by the Opp. Parties the said Rule be made absolute by quashing letter dated 07.12.2022 passed by District Labour Officer, Chhatrapur under (Annexure-1). And pass such other order(s)/direction(s) as this Hon9ble Court deem fit and proper. And for which act of your kindness the petitioner as in duty bound shall ever pray.= 3. Main ground of attacking the impugned order appears to be on the footing of alleged illegal taking out of some valid members from out of valid voter list. Undisputedly, petitioner attempted to resist the process of verification post finalization of voter list. From paragraph-7 of the Counter affidavit filed by the State, this Court finds as follows: Page 1 of 4 // 2 // <That in reply to the averments made in Para 8 of the writ petition, it is humbly submitted that on the re request of the Deponent, the management of M/s.Grasim Industries Ltd., Dist. Ganjam supplied certified list of 83 nos. of workmen of their establishment vide letter No.GIL/ER/256/2022, dtd.09.11.2022. A copy of the said letter dated 9.11.2022 is annexed herewith as ANNEXURE-F/3. On receipt of the workers9 list, all the 04 nos. of Trade Unions functioning in the industry were requested separately for submission of their Monthly Subscription Register, Membership Register in Form No.F and Counter foils of money receipts for the period from November, 2021 to October, 2022 on 16.11.2022 and 17.11.2022 respectively. In response to the letter, only Jayashree Chemicals Workers Union submitted the relevant documents. The other 3 unions failed to submit the same. The Petitioner-Union, instead of submitting the required documents requested for extension of time twice on different grounds. In spite of ample time given to the petitioner- Union for the period from 11.11.2022 to 06.12.2022 (25 days), it failed to produce the relevant documents for verification relating to recognition of Trade Union. The provision under Rule-3(g) of the <Rules, 1994= defines that 8Member9 means <A person who is an ordinary member of an Union and has paid the subscription to the union at least for a whole period of 3 months immediately preceding the calendar months in which a request has been made by the union to the State Implementation Officer and Evaluation Officer for Recognition. As the petitioner-Union failed to submit the required documents within the stipulated time, verification of members of the petitioner- Union could not be taken up. At the time of verification of membership of the other Unions, only 68 out of the 83 numbers of workmen were found eligible for casting their vote for recognition of Trade Union through secret Ballot. The left out 15 workmen are not members of any of the Trade Unions who submitted their required documents for verification. Hence, the final voter list was confined to 68 numbers and was published on 7.12.2022 vide Order No.1432 dtd.7.12.2022. The same was also sent to all the 04 Regd. Trade Unions as well as the management of M/s. Grasim Industries Ltd., with a copy of the said voter list to display in the Notice Board of Grasim Industries Ltd., for information of all concerned. Copy of the said order dated 7.12.2022 is annexed herewith as ANNEXURE-G/3. The date and time of voting for secret ballot was fixed to 28.12.2022 (8 A.M. to 5 P.M.) vide office order No.1425 dtd. 7.12.2022 and communicated to all concerned accordingly. Letter, on 9.12.2022 the petitioner Union submitted their records after finalization and notification of final voter list as well as date of Voting. Copy of the said Office Order dated 7.12.2022 fixing the date and tie of voting is annexed herewith as ANNEXURE-H/3.= In course of submission, it appears through document at page-74 of the 4. brief that Jayashree Chemical Employees Union, recognized union having Registration No.569/JYP/ dt.09.03.1968 not only participated in the verification process but has come to submit its request for allotment of <Cycle= as its election symbol. This Court in reading of the document at page-28 of the brief finds the process of verification involves Jayshree Chemicals Workers Page 2 of 4 // 3 // Union finds place at Sl.No.1 in the said notification. From page-74, it is again noticed one Ranjit Kumar Pradhan being the General Secretary of the recognized union, namely, Jayashree Chemical Employees Union appeared, contested, submitted such election symbol and as a consequence running page-76 discloses there is allotment of symbol (Cycle) in favour of the recognized union as per its own request and it is pursuant to its written request No.1425 dated 07.12.2022. Looking to the cause title, here this Court finds though the petitioner claims to be Jayashree Chemicals Employees Union but represented by somebody else. In course of submission, there has been clear admission that there is involvement of some of rivalry in the Union, which issue cannot be a subject matter here. For this Court finding the recognized union, namely, Jayashree Chemical Employees Union having been provided with opportunity at every state and for the further disclosure through counter affidavit of the opposite party no.5 such union even has also participated in the election process, this Court here finds even though verification process is already concluded but there has been no declaration of outcome for interim order passed by this Court intervening therein. This Court finds doubt in the petitioner9s status involved herein and observes there is serious doubt in locus standi of the petitioner involving such verification issue. This Court finds no proof of non-compliance of provision of Verification of Membership Rule. This Court considers the citation cited by Mr.Tripathy, learned counsel for the petitioner in Page 3 of 4 // 4 // W.P.(C).No.5911 of 2005 (decided on 14.09.2005) but does not find any support of the same to the case of the petitioner. In the process, this Court finds the writ petition at the instance of the petitioner is not only entertainable at this stage but has no substance even. Thus, while dismissing the writ petition, this Court however considering the request of Mr.Tripathy, learned counsel for the petitioner that the petitioner may be permitted to bring intra union dispute before appropriate authority, petitioner, if so advised, may proceed accordingly. 5. Interim order passed dated 23.12.2022 passed in I.A.No.17597 of 2022 stands vacated. 6. A free copy of this order be handed over to Mr.Sonak Mishra, learned Additional Standing Counsel for appropriate communication. (Biswanath Rath) Judge (M.S.Sahoo) Judge Sks SUSIL KUMAR SWAIN Digitally signed by SUSIL KUMAR SWAIN Date: 2023.05.04 17:55:13 +05'30' Page 4 of 4