KONDAMUDI CHANDRASEKHARA RAO Vs. STATE BANK OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL these writ petitions filed by the similarly placed erstwhile workmen of the respondent -bank arose out of a common award dated 17.05.2005 passed by the Central Government Tribunal -cum -Labour Court, Hyderabad (the Tribunal, for brevity) in response to a reference, dt.18.09.2001, from the Ministry of Labour, Government of India, under Section 10(1)(d) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (the Act, for brevity). Since the issue is common in all the writ petitions involving similarly placed workmen on one hand and a nationalised bank on the other, under the same factual background, all the writ petitions are adjudicated and pronounced upon through this common order. For ease of reference and felicity of expression, the facts are culled out from the Writ Petition No.26274 of 2006, arising out of I.D.No.222 of 2001, as the basis, and reference to the parties to the proceedings is made as they have been arrayed in the said writ petition.

(2.) THE facts in brief: The facts in brief, as pleaded by the petitioner, are that the petitioner joined the services of the respondent -bank as Messenger in 1998 and continued in service for more than a decade. Eventually his services were terminated by the respondent bank through an oral order on 01.04.1997. The petitioner and many other persons, having basic qualification and having met the other eligibility criteria, had been engaged as Messengers, etc., in the last grade service of the respondent bank in view of severe manpower shortage in its branches across the state beginning from 1998.

(3.) ON 01.08.1988, the respondent bank issued a notification, followed by a written test and viva voce in May, 1989, all of which culminated in the preparation of a panel of selected candidates, who were informed that they had been provisionally selected for the purpose of regularisation as and when vacancies arose. The first settlement dated 17.11.1987 was superseded by the second settlement dated 16.07.1988, which in turn was superseded by the third one dated 27.10.1988. Incorporating all those changes, the respondent bank issued a circular on 26.04.1991.