Subash K.V. and Others vs Kerala State Co-Operative Hospital, The Joint Registrar of Co-Operative and State of Kerala

P.N. Ravindran, J.—Heard the learned Counsel on both sides.

The Petitioners, who were working on daily wages and on contract basis in various categories of posts in the hospital run by the first Respondent society, have filed this writ petition seeking a writ in the nature of mandamus commanding the first Respondent to regularise them in service after reckoning their past service for all purposes. Shorn of details, the dispute between the Petitioners and the first Respondent is whether the Petitioners are entitled to be regularised in service. Though the Petitioners assert that they were in service on the day the writ petition was filed the first Respondent has filed a counter affidavit denying the said averment.

It is evident from the materials presently on record that what the Petitioners claim is regularisation in service, which according to me is a dispute falling within the definition of the term "dispute" occurring in section 69(1) of the Kerala Co- operative Societies Act, 1969. Such a dispute will necessarily have to be resolved either by the Co-operative Arbitration Court or under the Industrial Disputes Act. A Division Bench of this Court has in The Board of Directors, Thodupuzha Taluk General Marketing Co-op. Society. Ltd. No. 174 Vs. Michael Seabstian and Another, held that the remedies are concurrent.

In such circumstances I am of the opinion that the Petitioner should invoke either of the two remedies instead of seeking the intervention of this Court at this stage. I accordingly dismiss the writ petition leaving open the Petitioners'' contentions and reserving liberty with them to raise the dispute before the Co- operative Arbitration Court or take steps to have the dispute resolved under the Industrial Disputes Act.