MALABAR CANCER CENTRE SOCIETY Vs. DINESH KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants are respondents 1 to 3 in W.P.(C) No. 37894 of 2016, a writ petition filed by respondents 1 to 8 herein inter alia seeking a declaration that the insistence by the appellants on their employees opening savings bank accounts with the Industrial Development Bank of India ("IDBI" for short) for the purpose of disbursement of salary is unjust and illegal and violative of their fundamental rights. The brief facts of the case are as follows:

(2.) The writ petitioners, 8 in number, are employees of the Malabar Cancer Centre Society, Thalassery. Initially, the Malabar Cancer Centre Society was maintaining an account with Corporation Bank. Later, it opened an account with State Bank of India. When it felt that the State Bank of India was not offering services as expected by them, they opened an account with IDBI which started an extension counter and also provided an ATM facility in the campus. Later, on 16.2013, the managing committee of Malabar Cancer Centre Society requested its employees to open bank accounts with IDBI to facilitate payment of salary. It appears all employees except the petitioners opened bank accounts with IDBI. The petitioners refused to open an account with IDBI. All of them are however having accounts with State Bank of India, Thalassery Branch. This led to denial of salary and allowances to them with effect from August 2016. They thereupon filed W.P.(C)No. 37894 of 2016 in this court on 8.11.2016 seeking the following reliefs:

(3.) The appellants resisted the writ petition by filing a counter affidavit wherein the reasons which weighed with them to open a bank account with IDBI and to request the employees to open a salary account with IDBI are set out. The reasons thus set out in paragraph 6(A) to (E) of the counter affidavit are extracted below: