IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.6890 of 2002 1. Bihar Engineering Service Association, Bettiah Zone at Gandak Colony No. 1, Bettiah, through its Secretary Ashok Kumar Srivastava. 2. Sri Ram Shankar Thakur, Chairman, Bihar Engineering Service Association, Bettiah zone at Gandak Colony No. 1, Bettiah. 3. Ashok Kumar Srivastava, Secretary, Bihar Engineering Service Association, Bettiah zone at Gandak Colony No. 1, Bettiah. 4. Subordinate Engineering Service Association, Branch Bettiah, at Gandak Colony No. 1, Bettiah, through its Secretary Mahesh Prasad Singh. 5. Mahesh Prasad Singh, Secretary, Subordinate Engineering Service Association, Branch Bettiah at Gandak Colony No. 1, Bettiah. 6. Non-Gazetted Employees Association, District-West Champaran, Bettiah at Gandak Colony No. 2, Bettiah through its Secretary Prabhakar Singh. 7. Prabhakar Singh, Secretary, Non-Gazetted Employees Association, District-West Champaran, Bettiah at Gandak Colony No. 2, Bettiah. ................................ Petitioners Versus 1. The State of Bihar. 2. The Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Rural Development Department, Government of Bihar, Patna. 3. The Additional Secretary, Rural Development Department, Government of Bihar, Patna. 4. The Chief Engineer, Rural Development Department, Special Range, Government of Bihar, Patna. 5. The Secretary, Water Resources Development Department, Government of Bihar, Patna. 6. The Superintending Engineer, Rural Development Department, Circle Muzaffarpur At & P.O. & P.S.-Muzaffarpur, District-Muzaffarpur. 7. The District Magistrate, Bettiah. ................................. Respondents ----------- 4 21/5/2009 Heard Mr. Mahesh Narayan Parbat, counsel for the petitioners and counsel for the State. In this writ application the petitioners have prayed for the following relief:- a)To issue a writ of mandamus commanding the respondents to discharge their legal obligation and to pay salary and other emoluments of the members of the petitioners- Association in each and every month regularly; b)To issue a further writ of mandamus commanding the respondents to pay the entire dues amount of the members of the petitioners Association due under different heads e.g. salary, D.A. T.A. M.A. etc. including the difference of pay as per revision of pay scale time 2 to time in accordance with law immediately. C)To issue a further writ of mandamus commanding the respondents to pay interest @ 18% per annum on the entire dues amount of salary and other emoluments of the members of the petitioners Associations, since when the amounts have become due till the date of actual payment which has been withheld by the respondents authorities in arbitrary manner. d)To issue a further writ of mandamus commanding the respondents to allot additional fund for payment of the said amount of dues of the members of the petitioners Associations which have been kept pending since long. The respondents have filed counter affidavit and have answered the aforementioned prayer by taking the following plea:- 4.That the facts is that the payment of salaries is normally made regularly of the Govt. servants except in few cases due to procedural delay in the issue of allotment of funds. The payment is made as soon as the fund is made available. 5.That it is stated that most of the Govt. employees have been paid their entire dues baring a few in question (Annexure-2 of the writ petition) due to unavailability of sufficient fund. One of the basic reasons for non-payment of dues of the period prior to 1.8.98 is that these employees were in Water Resources Department till July, 1998 and after that i.e, from 1.8.98 they have joined in Rural Development Department. The detail statement of due payments of employees amounting to Rs.2,90,479.00 prior to 1.8.98 to be paid by Water Resources Deptt. and that due payment from 1.8.98 to 31.3.02 amounting to Rs. 9, 25, 690.00. The payment of dues prior to 1.8.98 of above said employees will be made from fund made available from Water Resources Department and after period from 1.8.98 the dues payment will be made from fund of Rural Development Department. 6.That it is stated by the deponent that the deponent has contacted both the department officials for allotment of funds and the same will be made available to the employee concerned as soon as fund is made available both the departments.” 3 In view of the aforementioned stand it would be very difficult for this Court to allow the petitioner’s Association to raise the grievance of payment of salary of individual employees. The payment of salary or allowance is an individual cause of action and therefore this writ application at the instance of Officers Association or Workers Association for the aforementioned relief by itself is not maintainable. It is more so because none of the Association-petitioners have claimed that they are registered association and have the capacity to bind member, officers and employees by a decision of this Court. That being so, this Court must hold that this writ application at the instance of the petitioners is not maintainable. As and when any individual officer or employee belonging to the aforementioned three petitioners Association would approach this Court with his specific grievance, this Court would definitely examine them and pass order for ventilating such grievance in accordance with law. Nothing said in this order therefore will also stand in the way of the Association in raising such grievance before the appropriate forum. With the aforementioned observations this writ application is finally disposed of. Abhay Kumar (Mihir Kumar Jha, J.)