Civil Writ Petition No. 2301 of 1991 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. Civil Writ Petition No. 2301 of 1991 Date of decision:- 26.04.2011 Kharkhuda Cooperative Marketing Society Ltd. ....Petitioner Vs. State of Haryana and others. ....Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE A.N. JINDAL Present:- Mr. Vivek Sharma, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Rajiv Parshad, DAG, Haryana, for respondent Nos. 1 to 4. None for respondent No.5. ***** A.N. JINDAL, J (ORAL) The petitioner has invoked the provisions of Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India for issuance of a writ in the nature of Certiorari for quashing the order dated 04.01.1991 (Annexure P-4) passed by the Joint Secretary, Govt. of Haryana, vide which the official respondents have made a reference under Section 10 (1) (b) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The Hon'ble Apex Court in a case Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board Vs. A. Rajappa and Others, (1978) 2 Supreme Court Cases 213, has held as under:- “126. Co-operative societies ordinarily cannot, we feel, fall outside Section 2 (j). After all, the society, a Civil Writ Petition No. 2301 of 1991 2 legal person, is the employer. The members and/or others are employees and the activity partakes of the nature of trade. Merely because co-operative enterprises deserve State encouragement the definition cannot be distorted. Even if the society is worked by the members only, the entity (save where they are few and self-serving) is an industry because the member-workers are paid wages and there can be disputes about rates and different scales of wages among the categories i.e. Workers and workers or between workers and employer. These societies-credit societies, marketing co-operatives, producers' or consumers' societies or apex societies-are industries.” Thus, in view of the obiter dicta given by the Hon'ble Apex Court that the co-operative society is an industry, the Government was competent to make reference by invoking the provisions of Section 10 (1) (b) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Dismissed. (A.N.JINDAL) 26th of April, 2011 JUDGE ajp