THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.RAMULU CONTEMPT CASE No.1697 of 2009 ORDER: This contempt case is filed complaining willful disobedience on the part of the respondents herein in complying with the order dated 31.12.2008 passed by this Court in W.P.M.P.No.26499 of 2008 in W.P.No.20296 of 2008, whereunder the respondents 5 to 7 therein were directed to consider allowing two members of the petitioner Union to participate in the JCM levels councils, if the membership of the petitioner-union is more than 15% of the total number of employees of the organization. There is no necessity of going into all the details. At paragraph 4 of the counter affidavit filed in the month of June, 2010, by Respondent No.2 herein, who is respondent No.7 in the writ petition, it is stated as under: “In reply to Para 3 of the affidavit it is submitted that the 1st & 2nd respondents are the 5th respondent and 7th respondent in the WP No.20296 of 2008 filed by the applicant Union. The Hon’ble High Court vide interim order dt 31.12.2008 has directed the respondents to consider allowing two members of the petitioner Union in the Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) level council if the membership of the petitioner Union is more than 15% of the total employees of the organization. It is submitted that there was dual membership among the employees and the matter was referred to Assistant Labour Commissioner (Central) Hyd. As per direction of our head of the department i.e., E-in-C’s Br Army HQs, New Delhi, the physical verification of membership was conducted on 25 Feb 2009. A copy of the statement showing verification report is enclosed as Annexure – 2. While conducting the physical verification the other Union representatives were not present and they put objection to this, stating that their absence was influenced the voters. Not withstanding this, as per Ministry of Defence letter No. 7(2)/96/D (JCM) dt 24 Jan 2 0 0 0 Annexure – 1 the area of operation of the recognized Unions of Military Engineer Service Workers operating at Area level or in more than one Commander Works Engineers, will be restricted to Commander Works Engineers existing on 19-10-1979 and such Union will not operate in Commander Works Engineers which came into existence after 19-10-1979. Formation and functioning of Unions in Commander Works Engineers which come into existence after 19-10-1979 will be allowed strictly at Commander Works Engineers level. Participation of such Unions in Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) IV level councils will also be restricted to Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) IV level councils of Commander Works Engineers existing on 19-10-1979 on the same analogy. Based on the above letter Commander Works Engineers (Army) Secunderabad has already allowed two seats in their Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) Councils. As the applicant union is eligible for Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) Councils in one of the two Commander Works Engineers area, and they already got 2 seats in Commander Works Engineers (Army) Secunderabad Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) Councils, they are not eligible to get 2 seats in the Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) councils of Commander Works Engineers (AF) Secunderabad area.” However, the learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the alleged cut-off date i.e., 19.10.1979 has no application to the case of the petitioner, therefore, the plea taken by the respondents that the petitioner Union is not eligible for the seats as sought for by them, cannot be countenanced. The said contention of the petitioner cannot be gone into by this Court in a contempt case like this and that the same can be considered only in the writ petition. Thus, the contempt case is devoid of merits and is liable to be dismissed. Accordingly, the contempt case is dismissed. However, it is made clear that this order does not preclude the petitioner from filing a detailed representation before the respondents and working out the remedies available to it as per law. _____________ C.V.RAMULU,J 09.11.2010 v v