J S SACHDEV Vs. RESERVE BANK OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in both the writ petitions are the employees of the Reserve Bank of India. Delhi Centre, (hereinafter referred to as the Bank) and in their respective writ petitions, they seek to challenge tile validity of certain schemes formulated by the Bank regulating the fixation of seniority and the method of promotion of the said employees. It would be convenient to dispose of both the wilt petitions by a common judgment.

(2.) The Bank was constituted under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The primary purpose for the constitution of the Bank, according to the preamble to the Act was "to regulate the issue of Bank notes and the keeping of reserves with a view to securing monetary stability in India and generally to operate the currency and credit system of the country to its advantage". To this primary function of the Bank, other functions were added from time to time as and when the parliament passed other legislation to meet the economic needs of the country. For carrying out all these functions, the Bank classified its administrative machinery into the following five groups:-

(3.) The departments falling under the first group were known as the General Departments and those falling under the other four groups were known as the Specialized Departments. Although in the first instance, recruitment to the various posts in the Bank was made on a common basis, i.e., by a competitive examination and selection, the successful candidates were allotted either to the General Departments or to the Specialized Departments according to the vacancies available in the respective Departments. But when once such allotment was made, the seniority and promotion of the employees in the various departments were determined on the basis that each department was a separate department. In other words, separate seniority lists were prepared for the employees in the General Departments and in the Specialized Departments and the employees in the Central Departments could not claim confirmation and promotion in the vacancies arising in the Specialized Departments and vice versa.