G BASSI REDDY Vs. INTERNATIONAL CROP RESEARCH INSTUTUTE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants were employees of the respondent No. 1 (ICRISAT). Their services were terminated. They filed writ petitions before the High Court of Karnataka against ICRISAT and the Union of India. The writ petitions were dismissed. The first writ petition so dismissed was W. P. No. 2730/1981 (K. S. Mathew vs. ICRISAT). A second group of writ petitions was dismissed on 30th June, 1988. The dismissals are the subject matter of these appeals. Both the Division Benches held that ICRISAT was an international organisation and was immune from being sued because of a Notification issued in 1972 under the United Nations (Privileges and Immunities) Act, 1947 and that a writ under Art. 226 could not be issued to ICRISAT.

(2.) What or who is ICRISAT Was the High Court right in holding that it was not amenable to the writ jurisdiction under Art. 226

(3.) ICRISAT was proposed to be set up as a non-profit research and training centre by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The CGIAR is an informal association of about 50 government and non-governmental bodies and is co-sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Bank. The members of the CGIAR at the relevant time were the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States, Ford Foundation, France, Germany, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Development Research Centre, Japan, Kellogg Foundation, Netherlands, Norway, Rockefeller Foundation, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United Nations Development Programme and the United States of America. In addition there were representatives from the five major developing regions of the world, namely, Africa, Asia and the Far East, Latin America, the Middle East, Southern and Eastern Europe.