Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 17: Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed and Justice Alok Aradhe has given relief to the employees of Farmers Societies who have gone through several rounds of litigation.
The case of the petitioners is that they were the employees of six Farmers Service Cooperative Societies which were ordered to be closed on 27.07.1990 by the Registrar, Co-operative Societies in terms of the provisions of Section 65 read with Section 66 of the Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Societies Act, 1960.
The order of winding up was passed on the basis of alleged embezzlement/ mismanagement/ misdeeds in the running of the Co-operative Societies. The present appellants have gone through several rounds of litigations and two earlier writ petitions were disposed by a judgment and order dated 31.05.2001. One of the directions contained in the judgment dated 31.05.2001 was that the State Government would also consider the claims of the petitioners in the same way as has been done in the case of employees of Rural Electric Cooperative Society Samba and would accord same treatment to the petitioners.
Apparently the respondents considered the case of the petitioners and passed a speaking order dated 19.12.2002 whereby it was observed that bad financial condition of the Government does not warrant absorption of the petitioners in Government Service.
After hearing both the sides, the DB observed, “the appeal filed by the respondents against the order dated 31.05.2001 stood dismissed and the direction given therein, became final. It was, therefore, incumbent upon the respondents to have complied with that direction in letter and spirit”.
“Since the directions given by the court on 31.05.2001 had attained finality and were clear, the respondents could not sit in appeal over the directions and give it an interpretation which ran counter to the direction of the court”, the DB said, adding “in these circumstances, the impugned judgment cannot be sustained and the respondents are directed to comply with the earlier directions dated 31.05.2001 within a period of six months from today”.
At this juncture, the counsel for the respondents submitted that two of the societies, Farmers Service Society Samba and Bari Brahmana have been revived. “If that be so, and if any of the appellants have been re-employed in those societies, then the direction, insofar as they are concerned, need not be complied with. Insofar as the employees of other societies are concerned, the direction has to be carried”, the DB said.
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