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K.K. Saksena v. International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 11499 of 2014)Decided 18 Dec 2014
Civil Appeal No. 11499 of 2014
Justice J. Chelameswar · Justice A.K. Sikri

Background

The Secretary of an international irrigation and drainage organisation challenged termination through a constitutional writ petition. He argued that the organisation's activities and government connections made it subject to public law review. The High Court dismissed the petition as not maintainable, without deciding the termination's merits.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the rejection of the writ petition. The organisation was not State under Article 12, and its voluntary research, information-sharing and development activities did not constitute the public duty required for this writ remedy. Even a private body performing some public functions is not subject to judicial review of every decision: the challenged action must contain a public law element. This termination concerned a private service relationship without such an element. The decision addressed maintainability and did not resolve the alleged breach of the employee's service terms on its merits.

Lesson Learnt

Work that benefits the public does not automatically make every employment decision subject to a constitutional writ. A claimant needs to identify the relevant public duty or public law element and choose the remedy suited to the dispute.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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