SASIDHARAN Vs. RESERVE BANK OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners challenge the proceedings Ext. P3 by which they were reverted from the post of Statistical Assistants to their substantive post of Clerk Grade I. They had been appointed as Statistical Assistants on a purely temporary and ad hoc basis, in connection with the All India Debt and Investment Survey 1981-82 organised at the instance of the first respondent, Reserve Bank of India. The basis on which selection to the post was made is set-forth in Ext.Rl(b) communication dated August 24,1981, which shows that the survey work, for which purpose the petitioners were selected, was expected to continue for about 10-12 months, that all the appointments were purely on temporary and ad hoc basis and that those appointed will be reverted to their original status immediately on completion of the survey work. The relevant portions of Ext. Rl(b) read:

(2.) Subsequently, and by an inadvertent mistake, the petitioners were confirmed in their posts as Statistical Assistants. There could be no doubt that this was a mistake, as the petitioners had no right to be confirmed in the post, having regard to the very terms and nature of their appointment. In fact, their seniors were still working in lower categories. Similar confirmation had taken place all over India in relation to such appointments of Statistical Assistants. When the mistake was discovered, the respondents rectified it. The petitioners were accordingly reverted to their substantive post, as mentioned earlier, by the proceedings Ext. P3. It is this reversion that is challenged on the ground that the respondents had no right to revert an officer to the lower grade, when once he is confirmed in the higher grade. It is the further case of the petitioners that Ext. P3 is void as a proceeding passed in violation of the principles of natural justice.

(3.) The respondents however, point out that the staff regulations governing the petitioners are not statutory in nature, as held by the Supreme Court in V.T. Khanzode v. Reserve Bank of India, AIR 1982 SC 917 . They constitute only a contract between the parties. Regulation.29 states that all appointments and promotions are in the discretion of the first respondent Bank, and notwithstanding an employee's seniority, in a grade, he has no right to be appointed, or promoted, to any particular post or grade. In any event, the confirmation of the petitioners in the cadre of Statistical Assistants was due to mistake on the part of the respondents, when they inadvertently overlooked the nature of the appointment, and the rights of seniors all over India. The mistake was rectified, and the injustice done to the seniors remedied by reverting the petitioners under Ext. P3.