Ashish Kumar And Others vs Union Of India And Others
2022 Latest Caselaw 2985 Ori

                    IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK

                                  W.P.(C) No.34400 of 2021

            Ashish Kumar and others                     ....         Petitioners
                                                    Mr. S.J. Nanda, Advocate
                                         -versus-
            Union of India and others                 .... Opposite Parties
                          Mr. P.K. Parhi, Asst. Solicitor General along with
                                 Mr. Bimbisar Das, CGC for Union of India
                                  Mr. S. Mahunta, Advocate for O.P. No.15

                        CORAM:
                        THE CHIEF JUSTICE
                        JUSTICE R.K. PATTANAIK

                                          ORDER

06.07.2022 Order No.

13. 1. Against the order passed by this Court on 16th May 2022 in the present writ petition, Petitioner No.1 filed Special Leave Petition (C) No.9911 of 2022 in the Supreme Court of India. On 1st June 2022, the said Special Leave Petition was dismissed by the following order:

"This matter is nothing but an abuse of process of law, as the High Court has already directed the matter to be listed on 06.07.2022. The present Special Leave Petition is filed seeking stay of the order passed by High Court on 16.05.2022. If the prayer as sought in the Special Leave Petition is to be granted, the High Court would also not be in a position to hear the matter on 06.07.2022. We deprecate this practice of filing of such frivolous petitions and wasting the time of the Court as well as the litigants.

We could have saddled heavy costs on filing of such a frivolous petition, however, we do not want to burden an ill advised litigant.

The Special Leave Petition is dismissed. Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of."

2. In the meanwhile, on 9th May 2022, a counter affidavit was filed by Jyoti Prakash Rath, Assistant Works Manager, Ordnance Factory, Badmal, a unit of Munitions India Limited, a Government of India Enterprise under Ministry of Defence. It is stated that Opposite Party Nos.2 to 4 have been wrongly impleaded in the writ petition and should be deleted. It is further pointed out that pursuant to the decision taken by the Union Cabinet on 16th June 2021, Government of India decided to corporatize 41 production units (ordnance factories) of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) functioning under the Department of Defence Production (DDP), Ministry of Defence. Pursuant thereto, Government of India decided to transfer with effect from 1st October 2021, the management, control, operations and maintenance of these 41 units to seven Government companies wholly owned by the Government of India, namely (i) Munitions India Limited (ii) Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (iii) Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited (iv) Troop Comforts Limited (v) Yantra India Limited (vi) India Optel Limited and (vii) Gliders India Limited.

3. It is stated that the Ordnance Factory at Badmal District- Bolangir, Odisha comes under the control of Munitions India Limited, Ammunition Factory Khadki, Pune-411003. It is accordingly prayed that the following three parties should be impleaded as necessary parties: (i) Director General Ordnance (Coordination & Service), Directorate of Ordnance, 10-A, S.K. Bose Road, Kolkata-700001 (ii) Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD), Munitions India Limited, 2nd Floor, Nyati Unitree, Nagar

Road, Yerwada, Pune-411006 (iii) The General Manager, Ordnance Factory, Badmal-767 070, Dist. Bolangir, Odisha. Opposite Party No.2 accordingly prays that the above three parties should replace Opposite Party Nos.2 to 4.

4. The counter affidavit which is of 49 pages thereafter proceeds to deal with the writ petition on merits and prays for its dismissal. A two page objection has been filed to the above counter affidavit by learned counsel for the Petitioners Mr. S.J. Nanda on the ground that the date for transfer of the management of OFB to the above Munitions India Limited has been re-fixed to 31st October 2023 which assertion is disputed by Mr. P.K. Parhi, learned Assistant Solicitor General for Union of India (ASGI). Mr. Nanda maintains that he is not obliged to implead the new parties as prayed for by the Opposite Parties and relies on the judgments of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh; High Court of Bombay, Nagpur Bench and the High Court of Madras in three individual writ petitions.

5. On perusal of the above judgments of the High Courts, the Court finds that they have no relevance whatsoever to the issues involved in the present writ petition. More particularly, they do not concern the question of the entities that have taken over the operations of the OFB as a result of the Union Cabinet's decision dated 16th June, 2021. Consequently, this Court rejects the above objection raised by the Petitioners and directs that Opposite Party Nos.2 to 4 in the writ petition be deleted and be substituted by the following parties:

(i) The General Manager, Ordnance Factory, Badmal-767 070, Dist. Bolangir, Odisha

(ii) Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD), nd Munitions India Limited, 2 Floor, Nyati Unitree, Nagar Road, Yerwada, Pune-411006

(iii)Director General Ordnance (Coordination & Service), Directorate of Ordnance, 10-A, S.K. Bose Road, Kolkata-700001

6. The amended cause title will now be prepared and placed on record by the Registry within a week.

7. Notice in the present writ petition is issued to the added parties and notice is accepted on their behalf by Mr. P.K. Parhi, learned ASGI. He undertakes to file a supplementary affidavit placing on record the decision dated 16th June, 2021 of the Union Cabinet and to confirm whether in fact, the operations of the OFB at Badmal has already been taken over by Munitions India Limited as well as copy of the OM dated 24th September 2021 issued by the DDP. The said affidavit, with an advance copy to the learned counsel for the Petitioners, will be filed within two weeks.

8. It will be open to the Petitioners, if they so choose, to file a rejoinder to the detailed counter affidavit dated 9th May 2022 filed on behalf of the Ordnance Factory, Badmal, being an unit of Munitions India Limited, before the next date.

9. Further, this Court has also perused the affidavit of Pawar Vicky Balu (Opposite Party No.15) filed on 13th May 2022, pursuant to the order dated 25th April, 2022. In the said affidavit, it is explained that the person who supposed to have appeared in virtual mode by disabling the video and only making allegations on the audio was some other person and not him. He has offered a detailed

explanation to say that he is at present working as a Danger Building Worker at Ammunition Factory, Khadki, Pune since 22nd March, 2022. He has placed on record the documents to show on that on the relevant date and time he was at work and could not have been present at the virtual hearing before this Court. The Court accepts the said explanation.

10. Learned counsel for the Petitioners now states that there is no urgency in the matter. Accordingly, list on 20th September, 2022.

I.A. No.8558 of 2022

11. This is an application by Opposite Party No.2 praying for impleadment of the aforementioned three parties instead of Opposite Party Nos.2 to 4. For the reasons already stated, the prayer is allowed.

12. The I.A. is disposed of in the above terms.

I.A. Nos.2649, 6227 and 6609 of 2022

13. In view of the orders already passed by this Court, the present I.As. do not survive and are accordingly disposed of.

(Dr. S. Muralidhar) Chief Justice

(R.K. Pattanaik) Judge S.K. Guin