K.V. Sridharan vs S. Sundaramoorthy on 3 December, 2008
8. The Division Bench dealt with the case where it was recorded that in the State of Tamil Nadu, there is no law relating to grant of recognition for a trade Union and therefore, the question of entertaining writ petition at the instance of private parties will not arise. The said Division Bench judgment was got over in the subsequent judgment by stating that the Division Bench did not deal with elections to be held for the CWC. It will not be applicable in a case where results of the elections to a Central Working Committee was under challenge. Therefore, a writ petition will lie against the department not to accept the results passed by a Central Working Committee of Trade Union. It is rather unfortunate such a distinction should be made especially when there is a binding judgment of the Division bench, wherein, the law has been clearly laid down. The sum and substance of the judgment of the Division Bench is that in the absence of any law for trade union recognition in the State, the Court cannot be saddled with disputes regarding elections, either an inter se election dispute or a dispute between the Union on the one hand and the government department on the other hand. The binding precedent of the judgment of the Division Bench in Sridharan's case (cited supra) will have to be followed. Further, in this case all the parties to the election have also been consulted and because of the procedural lapse, re-poll was reordered.