SHRIDEVENDRA MANAGEMENT TRAINEE Vs. PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants joined the clerical cadre of the respondent bank against the posts reserved for Scheduled Caste/scheduled Tribe candidates sometime between 1974 and 1977. As the bank felt the paucity of finding Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe members to man its managerial cadres, it issued a Circular No. 386 dated 30/05/1978 inviting Scheduled Caste/scheduled Tribe employees working in the clerical cadres to appear at the test for selection of Management Trainees. In response to this circular the appellants appeared at the test and were selected as Management Trainees, intimation whereof was conveyed to them by the letter dated 30/10/1978. While giving the intimation of their selection as Management Trainees, the said letter conveyed the terms and conditions which would apply to them. The relevant terms and conditions with which we are concerned have been set out in paragraph I as under:

(2.) By a resolution dated 19/07/1973 the government of India had appointed a Committee consisting of five members with Professor V. R. Pillai as its Chairman to standardise the pay scales, allowances and perquisites of the officers working in the 14 Nationalised Banks. This Committee, popularly known as Pillai Committee, submitted its report in May 1974. The central government thereafter appointed a Study Group of Bankers sometime in September 1976 to study the report and make suggestions for its implementation. This Study Group suggested certain modifications in the method of implementation of the recommendations made by the Pillai Committee in its report submitted in January 1977. The government accepted the report as modified by the Study Group of Bankers. The standardised pay scales suggested by the Pillai Committee in paragraph 5.13 of its report were as under:these scales are linked to the quarterly average of 200 in the All India Working Class Consumer Price Index (base 1960=100 and it was decided that while the amount of neutralisation may continue to be 3% of pay for every 8 points rise till the index level rises to 272 with certain maxima fixed at each level, it was decided that the neutralisation may be limited to 2.5% for every 8 points rise thereafter subject to a maximum of Rs. 20. 00 as obtaining in the central government. On the acceptance of the recommendations of the Pillai Committee as modified by the Study Group of Bankers, the respondent-bank in exercise of powers conferred by Section 19 read with Section 12 (2 of the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 formulated regulations in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India and with the previous sanction of the central government known as Punjab National Bank (Officers) Service Regulations, 1979. In continuation thereof the respondent-bank issued a Circular No. 492 dated 16/01/1980 prescribing the grades and categorisation of scales for its officers as extracted earlier. In the regulations framed by the respondent-bank no provision was made in regard to Management Trainees. Therefore, provision was made in regard to Management Trainees in paragraph 7 of the aforesaid circular in the following terms:

(3.) The grievance of the appellants is that they should have been fixed in the revised scale applicable to the Junior Management Cadre and should have been granted the advantage of fitment like any other employee belonging to the managerial cadre. According to them if they had beengranted the benefit of the fitment formula evolved under the regulations, they would have been placed at Rs. 950. 00 in the scale of Rs. 700-1800 prescribed for the Junior Management Cadre. However, the respondent-bank did not give them the benefit of the fitment formula admissible to the managerial cadres of the bank and instead fixed them at the minimum of the basic scale of Rs. 700. 00 without granting them the benefit under the fitment formula. On account of this they suffered in two ways; firstly, they were not given the benefit of fitment formula and their salary was not fixed at Rs. 950. 00 under that formula and secondly their dearness allowance which would have been admissible to them at 93% of the basic wage shrunk to 51% under the revised DA formula, thereby resulting in a loss of over Rs. 300. 00 per month. In this way, contend the appellants, the Circular No. 492 dated 16/01/1980 providing for the fitment of Management Trainees in the revised scale has prejudiced them and being arbitrary, unreasonable and discriminatory it is hit by Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.