THE ALL INDIA STATE BANK OF INDIA SUPERVISORY STAFF FEDERATION REPRESENTED BY ITS GENERAL SECRETARY, R.N. GOBELE, STATE BANK OF INDIA BUILDINGS AND ANR. Vs. STATE BANK OF INDIA BY ITS CHAIRMAN CENTRAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition has been filed by the All India State Bank of India Supervisory staff Federation for the issue of a writ of mandamus directing the State Bank of India to implement fort with certain draft rules which are said to have been agreed to between the petitioner Federation and the State Bank of India.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioner the staff of the State Bank of India had been classified into two classes : (1) officers - -supervising staff; and (2) the rest popularly known as award staff. While the former category is generally governed by their individual contract of service with the Bank, the working conditions of the latter category are governed by the Sastri Award, Desai Award and subsequent agreements arrived at between the management of the State Bank and the award staff.

(3.) IN my view, the petitioner Federation has misconceived its remedy. Admittedly the Sastri Award relating to the second category cannot automatically be applied to the former category. As it is, there is a set of rules dealing with disciplinary matters, which are applicable to the members of the Federation who belong to the former category. It is true, the petitioner has been agitating for the revision of those rules to bring them in line with the relevant provisions of the Sastri Award or the rules framed under Article 311 of the Constitution in relation to Government servants. It is not for this Court at this stage to pronounce generally, by a declaration as if it were, on the inadequacy of the existing rules or on the necessity for an elaborate set of rules relating to disciplinary proceedings so far as the members of the petitioner Federation are concerned. The petitioner's main contention is that the rules in Chapter VI of the said Service Rules are quite insufficient to stand the test as to the requirement of the rules of natural justice and that, therefore, those rules should be varied or modified so as to be in accord with the elaborate rules set out in the Sastri Award or those framed under Article 311 in relation to Government servants.