LORD KRISHNA BANK LTD. Vs. T.B. REGHURAMAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE revision petitioner -Bank is aggrieved that ignoring the objection raised by it before the Additional Munsiff's Court, Ernakulam, the Court has found O.S. No. 816/1992, brought by the present respondent, who was the former Manager of the bank to be maintainable.

(2.) THE learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that admittedly it is the master and servant relationship that subsists between the revision petitioner and the respondent and that as such, a suit, as filed in the aforesaid Court, was clearly not maintainable. Though notice was served on the respondent, he was not represented during hearing today. The reliefs prayed in the plaint were the following : -

(3.) A perusal of the impugned order shows that the suit was found to be maintainable relying on the decision of this Court in N.P. Mathai v. Federal Bank Ltd., ILR 1993 Ker. 479. A perusal of para 10 of the said judgment shows that the appellant therein had sought a declaration from the Court that he was continuing in service and also prayed for an injunction restraining the defendant -Bank from obstructing the functioning of the appellant in office. Alternatively, appellant claimed for damages for wrongful termination of the services. On the basis of statistics and calculation, a sum of Rs. 2,09,684.54 was claimed. Suit was dismissed. However, when the matter was argued before this Court the relief of reinstatement was not pressed and the compensation itself was reduced. It was in the backdrop of this development that this Court went into other contentions on the merits. There is nothing contained in the judgment which would show that a suit for declaration of continuance of service would be maintainable before the civil court.