AWADESH NARAIN PANDEY Vs. CENTRAL BANK OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition by Awadesh Narain Pandey who was selected and placed on the panel prepared for appointment to the post of Peon cum Farrash/Armed Guard in the service of Central Bank of India, Kanpur Region. The panel was revised in 1972 as a result of which a number of sons and daughters of the employees of the Bank were brought on the panel with the result the petitioners' chances of employment were receded. Aggrieved, the petitioner filed this petition challenging the validity of the action of the authorities of the Central Bank in giving preference to the sons and daughters of the Bank employees. The petitioner has claimed relief for the issue of a writ of mandamus directing the authorities of the Central Bank not to fill vacancies from the sons and daughters who were empaneled in 1972, unless the original panel prepared in 1971 is exhausted.

(2.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner urged that the respondents have acted in violation of Article 16 of the Constitution in bringing the names of sons and daughters of the employees of the Bank on the panel prepared for employment in the Bank. On behalf of the respondent Bank it is urged that the Central Bank of India is not "State" within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution hence even if there is any irregularity in the drawing of panel no writ can legally be issued to the respondent Bank which is neither 'State' nor statutory body. In the alternative it is further urged that the respondent Bank has not violated any statutory provision in revising the panel.

(3.) IN Sabhajit Tewari v. Union of INdia, AIR 1975 SC 1329 the Council of Scientific and INdustrial Research, a society registered under the Socities Registration Act, was not held to be authority within the meaning of Article 12 on the ground that the Society did not have statutory character like the Oil and Natural Gas Commission or the Life INsurance Corporation. The fact that the Prime Minister was President or the Government appointed nominees or that the Government could terminate the membership was not found sufficient to confer the status of statutory body or statutory authority on the Council of Scientific and INdustrial Research. IN Sukhdev Singh v. Bhagat Ram, AIR 1975 SC 1331, it was again held that the expression "other authorities' in Article 12 would include only those authorities which are created by statute and which function in accordance with the Statute. If an authority is not statutory IN nature it would not fall within the expression "other authorities' occurring in Article 12 of the Constitution.