G N SRIDHARAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner in these two writ petitions is one and the same and the respondents are also the same in both the writ petitions. THE petitioner is a Class I Officer in the Life Insurance Corporation of India hereinafter referred to as the Corporation. THE prayer in W. P. No. 3972 of 1978 is for the issue of a certiorari calling for the records relating to the order of the third respondent . Executive Director (Personnal), Life Insurance Corporation of India, Bombay, in Ref Personnel 1/B/ZD/365, dated 23rd September, 1978 and quash the same in so far as it affects the petitioner. THE prayer in W.P. No. 3973 of 1978 is for the issue of a writ of certiorari fied mandamus, calling for the records relating to the order of the second respondent . Life Insurance Corporation of India, represented by its Chairman, dated 22nd June, 1976 communicated in the order of the third represented in Circular. No. 3543/ASP/76, dated 23rd June, 1976 and quash" the same in so far as it affects the petitioner and direct the second respondent to pay bonus to the petitioner for the years 1975-76, 1976-77 and 1977-78, in accordance with Life Insurance Corporation (Bonus to Class I Officers) Instructions 1970, hereinafter referred to as the Instructions 1970, dated 16th September, 1970 as amended.

(2.) AT the outset, it must be pointed out that the controversy in both the writ petitions relates to the claim for bonus For Class I Officers of the Corporation. For the purpose of appreciating and assessing the grievance of the petitioner and his attack on the two proceedings subject-matter in the two writ petitions as, it becomes necessary to briefly trace what transpired earlier and that too, with reference to the statute concerned and the Regulations that came to be passed thereunder. The statute is the Life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956, hereinafter referred to as the Act. The Constitution of the Corporation has been done under section 4 (1) of the Act and one of the members who go to constitute the corporation shall be appointed by the Central Government to be the Chairman thereof. Section 49 enables the Corporation to make regulations and such regulations may provide for the terms and conditions of service of the employees of the Corporation. This is found from clauses (b) and (bb) of sub-section (2) of section 49 of the Act. The said power was . exercised and the result is the making of the regulation which bears the nomenclature, Life Insurance Corporation of India (Staff) Regulations, 1960, hereinafter referred to as the Regulations. Regulation 4 gives the power to the Chairman to issue instructions and directions from time to time, as may be necessary to give effect to, and carry out, the provisions of the Regulations. Regulation 58 governs the payment of bonus. Admittedly, Regulation 58 has undergone amendments from time to time. Until 1967, Regulation 58 enabled the Corporation to pay non-profit sharing bonus to its employees belonging to Classes III and IV. By notification dated 11th February, 1967, regulation 58 was substituted and the substituted regulation read as follows:

(3.) BONUS to Class I Officers was disbursed for the years 1969-70, 1970-71, 1971-72, 1972-73, 1973-74 and 1974-75. There could not be any dispute with regard to the sanction for the disbursement of bonus upto the year 1972-73. Learned counsel for the respondents would submit that the terms of settlement dated 14th August, 1970 followed by Instructions 1970 governed such disbursement and that the disbursement of bonus for the years 1973-74 and 1974-75 was not pursuant to Instructions 1970, because the period stipulated under the settlement dated 14th August, 1970, on the basis of which alone Instructions 1970 came to be issued, lapsed with the end of the year 1972-73. Learned counsel for the petitioner has got his own construction to be put on the set of expressions "and the subsequent financial years. occurring in clause 2 of Instructions 1970 and would say that the sanction and instructions would govern the disbursement of bonus for the period subsequent on 1972-73. Reserving the resolution of the controversy to a subsequent stage, I shall complete, the narration of the events which led to the passing of the impugned proceedings.