Reinstatement of convicted employees cannot be ordered
Staff Reporter
Writ petition of sales person dismissed
“High Court has very limited jurisdiction to issue writ against cooperative societies”
MADURAI: Courts cannot direct cooperative societies to consider reinstatement of its employees who were convicted in a criminal case but released under the Probation of Offenders Act, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ruled.
Dismissing a writ petition filed by a sales person with the Agricultural Producers Cooperative Marketing Society at Musiri in Tiruchi district, Justice K. Chandru said such release would not erase the conviction as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Divisional Personnel Officer, Southern Railway Vs. T.R. Chellappan (1976). The 1976 decision was also affirmed by a larger Bench of the Apex court in Union of India Vs. Tulsiram Patil (1985), he said and added: “It is clear that the respondent (marketing society) is bound to proceed as if the conviction against the petitioner still stands.” The judge also pointed out that the High Court has very limited jurisdiction to issue a writ against cooperative societies in view of a judgement passed by a larger Bench of the High Court in K. Marappan Vs. The Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies last year.
On the petitioner’s contention that a Tiruchi Fast Track Court which confirmed the conviction had observed that the conviction would not be a bar on considering her reinstatement, the judge said: “Such an advice by the sessions court is not only unwarranted but also due to wrong understanding of law.”
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