S.Kasiramalingam, v. The Chief Secretary,

WP No.26013 of 2016 The Hon`ble The CHIEF JUSTICE and The Hon`ble Mr Justice M. SUNDAR S.Kasiramalingam, S/o.V.Sankarappa Gounder, No.7, Dasarathapuram 7th Street, Saligramam, Chennai-600 093.

Vs The Chief Secretary, Government of Tamilnadu, Secretariat, Fort St. George, Chennai-600 009. and 2 others.

The present petition cannot be treated as a public interest litigation, as it is a service dispute.

2. The learned counsel for the petitioner seeks to canvass that the petitioner, apart from claiming benefit for himself, is also claiming benefit for similarly situated persons and the issue is covered in their favour, but the respondents are insisting that unless orders are obtained from the Court, relief would not be granted.

3. On the principle we can have no quibble that once a judgment is rendered, similarly situated persons in service, in case of a policy decision, would be entitled to the benefit and each person should not be compelled to approach the Court. However, this would not change a service dispute into a public interest litigation.

4. We, thus, direct the Registry to de-register the case as public interest litigation and register as service dispute and place before the appropriate Bench.

[CJ] [M S J] 01/02/2017 SASI http://www.judis.nic.in