CANARA BANK EMPLOYEES' UNION Vs. CANARA BANK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The prayer sought for in both these writ petitions is for issue of Writ of Declaration to declare the Circular issued by the 3rd respondent dated 24.10.2019 and the consequential circular issued by the 1st respondent Bank dated 25.11.2019 as illegal and unauthorized and consequently to declare both the circulars as inoperative and non-est in the eye of law.

(2.) The case of the petitioners in short is as follows: The petitioner is a registered trade union representing the officers and supervisory staff working in the Respondent Bank respectively. The membership, admission, register of members and removal of membership are defined under the Rules and Bye-laws and such right of admission of the membership is vested purely at the discretion of the Union and no one can automatically become the member on mere submissions of application form. The department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, issued circular dated 24.10.2019, to SBI and all other nationalized banks regarding online facility for recording/modifying employee mandate for deduction of association membership subscription from the salary and linking the same to HRMS for auto deduction. The said circular is against the basic tenets of Trade Union rights to admit the members and regulate the same. By enabling auto-admission through an entry in HRMS package by an applicant, the Union is deprived of its right to accept or reject membership of an individual applicant on valid grounds. Consequent upon the above circular issued by the 3rd respondent dated 24.10.2019, the 1st respondent bank has decided to implement the same and communicated such decision through its impugned circular dated 25.11.2019. Though the petitioners objected through their representation dated 18.11.2019, the implementation of those circulars is in the progress. Hence, the present writ petitions.

(3.) The respondents 1 and 2 filed a counter affidavit, wherein it is stated as follows: