STATE BANK OF INDIA Vs. P SARATHY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AGGRIEVED by the Common Order of the learned single Judge, dated 12. 09. 2005, made in WP No. 12138 of 2003, directing the State Bank of India (SBI) to pay interest on the Provident Fund (P. F.) amount upto 27. 06. 2000 within a period of three months from the date of receipt of copy of the order, the respondents/sbi have preferred the above Appeal.

(2.) ACCORDING to the appellants, SBI was constituted by the State Bank of India Act, 1955. Section-50 thereof empowers the Central Board of the Bank to make regulations among others to provide for the establishment and maintenance of a superannuation pension, P. F. or other funds for the benefit of the employees. Pursuant to Section 50 (2) (O) of the said Act, the Central Board framed regulations to provide for the establishment and maintenance of a provident for the benefit of the employees of the Bank, which regulations are known as State Bank of India Employees' Provident Fund Rules (hereinafter referred to as 'rules') and the fund is called as the State Bank of India Employees' Provident Fund. The P. F. is administered by a Board of Trustees. The Rules of Provident Fund framed by the Central Board is governed by Provident Fund Act, 1925. Rule-12 of the Rules provides that every member shall subscribe towards the fund in each month a sum equivalent to a specified percentage of his salary and such subscriptions shall be credited to the individual's account in the books of the Provident Fund and a sum equal to that subscribed by a member shall also be contributed by the Bank monthly and credited to his account. The Bank maintains the account of the trust. Every employee, who joins the P. F. Scheme, is required to submit a prescribed application form and thereafter he is admitted to the Scheme. As per Rule 41 of the Rules, every employee, while joining the P. F. Scheme, should subscribe to an agreement declaring that he has read and understood the Rules and subscribes and agrees to be bound by the Rules. As the subscription made to the P. F. account is a compulsory deposit under the statute for the fixed period till continuation of employment and not drawable on demand, interest is payable till the employee ceases to be in service of the Bank. After cessation of service, the P. F. balance is payable only on demand. The above provisions are made known to all the employees, who become members of the P. F. Scheme, who after reading and understanding the Rules, sign the declaration that they subscribe and agree to be bound by the said Rules. The Trustees should be informed by the employees about the date of retirement / termination for claiming payment of the P. F. amount. Every member of the P. F. Scheme has to make a demand on attaining superannuation or on the happening of any specified contingency or cessation. On the charges levelled against the respondent/writ petitioner, after enquiry, on 11. 01. 1983, he was removed from the service of the Bank. He was pursuing the litigation, challenging his removal from service, however, he did not make an application for payment of the P. F. amount as required under the Rules. The respondent/petitioner is not entitled to interest inasmuch as Rule 33 of the Rules stipulates that interest on all monies standing in the book of fund to the credit of a member would cease on the day he leaves the service of the Bank. When the petitioner did not care to make a claim for the P. F. amount till 2000, it would not be open for him to contend that the Bank should pay interest on the P. F. amount merely because the amount was lying with it.

(3.) THE respondent-writ petitioner filed WP No. 20802/02, questioning the proceedings of the Assistant General manager, SBI, dated 04. 12. 2001, and for directing the SBI to consider his claim for pension under the Rules and also to settle the PF amount with up-to-date interest. In WP. No. 12138 of 2003, the same petitioner prayed for issuance of a writ of declaration to declare Rule 33 of the Rules as arbitrary, unreasonable, illegal, unconscionable and opposed to public policy insofar as the petitioner is concerned.