PIL not maintainable in service matters. Service matters writ cannot be filed by an association-Delhi High Court

PIL not maintainable in service matters in view of several Supreme Court Judgments. Service matters a writ petition cannot be filed on behalf of an association for various individual persons -High Court

ABCAUS Case Law Citation:
ABCAUS 1098 (2017) (01) HC

Important Case Laws Cited:
Bholanath Mukherjee and Others Vs. Ramakrishna Mission Vivevkananda Centenary College and Others

Brief Facts of the Case:
The present writ petition was filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India by the petitioner NGO being a trust registered under the Indian Trust Act, 1882.

The petitioner had claimed the relief of directions to be issued to all public sector banks that in case of a penalty of removal/dismissal from services is imposed then the outstanding leave should be allowed to be encashed and be paid along with interest.

Observations made by the High Court:
The Delhi High Court observed that it is a well settled law in view of a catena of judgments of the Supreme Court that in service matters a Public Interest Litigation petition does not lie.

The Hon’ble Court clarified that there is a reason why in service matters a writ petition cannot be filed on behalf of an association for various individual persons because if any action for contempt has to be taken against individual persons such action cannot be taken by the Court against individual persons who are not before the Court and are only being represented by a body/association, such as in the present case.

The Court further clarified that since the petitioner was an NGO which was not a living person, rights of NGO are different from the rights of an individual person, and rights of an individual person as per service matters law can only be enforced by such individual persons by seeking appropriate writs of certiorari, mandamus and/or any other appropriate order. Petitioner can only have locus standi if any personal rights of the petitioner were involved as an NGO but not on account of petitioners pleadings to be representing thousands and lakhs of employees of public sector banks.

Therefore the Hon’ble Court observed that the petitioner clearly had no locus standi, in service matters a Public Interest Litigation is not maintainable, individual employees of the banks were not before the Court and nor could be because thousands and lakhs of persons could not come together as petitioners in one case.

Held:
PIL not maintainable in service matters. The writ petition dismissed with costs of Rs. 20,000/-