INDIAN BANK Vs. K USHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted in Special Leave Petitions.

(2.) By consent of learned Advocates appearing for contesting parties this group of nine appeals was heard finally and is being disposed of by this common judgment.

(3.) The common appellant, Indian Bank, in this group of appeals has brought in challenge the judgment and orders of Division Benches of Madras High Court allowing writ petitions of the respondents concerned who are the heirs and legal representatives of deceased employees of Bank of Thanjavur Limited which was amalgamated with the appellant-bank with effect from 20th February, 1990 in accordance with the Scheme of Amalgamation framed under Section 45 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'). The respondents concerned had sought compassionate appointments from the appellant-banks on the ground that they were the heirs and legal representatives of the deceased employees of Thanjavur Bank (hereinafter referred to as 'the transferor bank') whose assets and liabilities were taken over by the appellant-bank, hereinafter referred to as 'the transferee bank' for the sake of convenience. The claim of the respondents for such appointments was based on an agreement entered into between the recognised Union of the employees of the transferor bank in the year 1982 with the Management of the transferor bank under Section 2(p) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (hereinafter referred to as 'the I.D. Act'). The said settlement was not arrived at during conciliation proceedings, hence it remained binding only on the parties to the said settlement, namely, the Union of employees of transferor bank on the one hand and the Management of the transferor bank on the other. As per the said settlement a scheme of compassionate appointment to be given to the eligible heirs of deceased employees of transferor bank who died in harness was evolved. The respondents' contention was that the said settlement remained binding to the transferee bank as the successor bank which had taken over assets and liabilities of the transferor bank pursuant to the order of amalgamation. The appellant-transferee bank refused to entertain the said claims. That resulted in diverse writ petitions by the respondents before the High Court. The High Court took the view that the respondents were entitled to get the benefit of the said settlement which was binding not only on the transferor bank which was a party to the settlement but also on its successor-in-interest, namely, the appellant-bank and as the appellant-bank had rejected the request of the respondents by the impugned judgments, writs of mandamus were issued to the appellant-bank to grant appointments on compassionate ground to the concerned respondent-writ petitioners. Having obtained special leave to appeal under Article 136 of the Constitution of India these appeals have been moved by the appellant-bank challenging the aforesaid decisions rendered by the High Court.