Bikram Prasad v. Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank - through its Chairman, Bhagat Singh Chowk & Ors.

Mahendra Badal, aged about 45 years, son of Sri Satish Chandra Rai - CWJC No 5293 of 2009 Presently residing at C/o Sri Girija Prasad Singh, Karyanand Nagar, Thana Chowk, P S & Town & District - Lakhisarai - Petitioner 1 Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank - through its Chairman, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Versus Munger 2 Board of Directors of Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank through its Chairman, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger 3 B M Mittal, Executive Director, UCO Bank, Head Office : 10, BTM Sarani, Kolkata - 700 001 4 General Manager, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank through its Chairman, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger 5 Dinesh Chandra Singh, son of late Someshwar Nath Singh, Ex-Chairman, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank - present posted as DGM (Personnel Services), UCO Bank, Head Office : New Building at Salt Lake, Kolkata through UCO Bank 2 6 R V Vaidya, Nominee Director of Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank from sponsor Bank - presently posted as DGM, RRB Cell, UCO Bank, Head Office, 10, BTM Saran, Kolkata - 700 001 through UCO Bank 7 Gopi Chand, AGM, Nominee Director of Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank from sponsor Bank - presently posted as Zonal Manager, UCO Bank, Patna Zone, Maurya Lok, Patna - 800 001 through UCO Bank 8 Pintu Sutar, AGM RBI, Nominee Director of Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank from RBI - presently posted as AGM, RBI Office of Regional Director, Gandhi Maidan, Patna 9 Biresh Kumar, son of not known - presently posted as Officer, Head Office, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank through its Chairman, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger 10 Sadanand Sharma, son of not known - presently posted as Senior Manager, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Head Office, Munger through its Chairman, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger 11 General Manager, Planning and Development, UCO Bank, Head Office, 12, Old Court House Street, Kolkata - 700 001 - Respondents ----------- CWJC No 6204 of 2009 Rana Ranbir Singh, son of Rana Pratap Singh, House No 85, T N Singh Lane, Hanuman Nagar, P S - Adampur, Bhagalpur- Petitioner Versus 1 2 3 4 5 The Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger through its Chairman The Board of Director - cum- Appellate Authority, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger The Chairman - cum - Disciplinary Authority, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger The General Manager, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger S N Sharma, the Enquiry Officer - cum - the Senior Manager, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Regional Office, Lakhisarai W I T H Respondents - Sanjay Kumar Pandey, son of Sri Nitya Nand Pandey, resident of Mohalla - CWJC No 8850 of 2009 C C Mukherjee Road, Adampur, P S - Adampur (Kotwali), Town & Dist - Bhagalpur Petitioner - Versus 1 The Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger - 811 201 through its Chairman 2 The Board of Director -cum- Appellate Authority, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger - 811 201 through its Chairman 3 The Chairman -cum- Disciplinary Authority, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger 4 The General Manager, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger - 811 201 - Respondents W I T H CWJC No 8856 of 2009 Rakesh Michael, aged about 45 years, son of Sri Michael Francis, presently Residing at Mohalla Bari Dariyapur, Munger Line Colony Road, P S - Jamalpur, District & Town - Munger Petitioner - 1 Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank - through its Chairman, Bhagat Singh Chowk, 2 Board of Directors of Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank through its Chairman, Munger 3 Versus Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger 3 B M Mittal, Executive Director, UCO Bank, Head Office : 10, BTM Sarani, Kolkata - 700 001 4 General Manager, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank through its Chairman, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger 5 Dinesh Chandra Singh, son of late Someshwar Nath Singh, Ex-Chairman, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank - present posted as DGM (Personnel Services), UCO Bank, Head Office : New Building at Salt Lake, Kolkata through UCO Bank 6 R V Vaidya, Nominee Director of Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank from sponsor Bank - presently posted as DGM, RRB Cell, UCO Bank, Head Office, 10, BTM Saran, Kolkata - 700 001 through UCO Bank 7 Gopi Chand, AGM, Nominee Director of Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank from sponsor Bank - presently posted as Zonal Manager, UCO Bank, Patna Zone, Maurya Lok, Patna - 800 001 through UCO Bank 8 Pintu Sutar, AGM RBI, Nominee Director of Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank from RBI - presently posted as AGM, RBI Office of Regional Director, Gandhi Maidan, Patna 9 Sadanand Sharma, son of not known - presently posted as Senior Manager, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Head Office, Munger through its Chairman, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger 10 General Manager, Planning and Development, UCO Bank, Head Office, 12, Respondents Old Court House Street, Kolkata - 700 001 - W I T H CWJC No 8876 of 2009 Anuj Kumar, son of Sri Nawal Kishore Kumar, resident of Mohalla - Hanuman Nagar, Adampur, P S - Adampur (Kotwali), Town & District - Bhagalpur Petitioner - Versus 1 The Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger - 811 201 through its Chairman 2 The Board of Director -cum- Appellate Authority, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger - 811 201 through its Chairman 3 The Chairman -cum- the Disciplinary Authority, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger 4 The General Manager, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Respondents Munger - 811 201 - CWJC No 9452 of 2009 W I T H Rakesh Kumar, son of Sri Janardhan Singh, H No 45/6, Hanuman Nagar, P S - Adampur, Bhagalpur (at present posted as an officer, Sikandra Branch, District - Jamui) - Petitioner 1 The Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger through its Chairman Versus 4 2 3 4 The Board of Directors -cum- Appellate Authority, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger through its Chairman The Chairman -cum- the Disciplinary Authority, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger The General Manager, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Munger 5 Mr S N Sharma, the Enquiry Officer -cum- the Senior Manager, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Regional Office, Lakhisarai - ----------- Respondents 5

19.08.2009 All these 7 writ applications relate to a common issue. The petitioners were employees of various Kshetriya Gramin Banks which have now brought together under one head, namely, Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank. It appears that pursuant to an incident that took place, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against several persons including the petitioners. They were punished. They filed appeal. In appeal, the order of the disciplinary authority was set aside and the matter was remanded for fresh consideration. They were directed to be reinstated. It was further ordered by the appellate authority that the disciplinary authority would be a person nominated by them apart from Chairman as the Chairman was personally involved in the said incident. The appeal having, thus, been disposed of was not given effect to. Suddenly, without notice to the petitioners, the said appellate order was recalled and all appeals were dismissed purporting to be by the appellate authority. It is this order which was passed on review that is challenged before this Court. One similarly situated employee filed writ petition being CWJC No 7180 of 2009. That was heard and disposed of by this Court by judgment and order dated 29.06.2009 whereby the purported appellate order passed on review was quashed and the original appellate order restored. The Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, being aggrieved by 5 the said judgment of this Court, filed Letters Patent Appeal No 888 of

2009. As the said Letters Patent Appeal was pending and the issues were the same, these writ petitions were directed to be listed after disposal of said Letters Patent Appeal. On parties informing this Court that the Letters Patent Appeal was disposed of by order dated

10.08.2009, these matters have been relisted for disposal. Parties are in agreement that the writ petitions may be disposed of in terms of the order passed in the Letters Patent Appeal as the facts are identical. In the Letters Patent Appeal, which was disposed of only a limited interference in the order of this Court was made. It did not interfere substantively with the order of this Court but the only change made was in the original appellate order. It was held that a person other than Chairman of the Bank would act as disciplinary authority. That was modified and it was held that the Chairman of the Bank would be the disciplinary authority for deciding the matter on remand because the Chairman, who was involved in the incident, had already been transferred. Thus, question of bias would normally not arise. These writ petitions are also, thus, disposed of in the same terms. The review appellate order is set aside. The original appellate order is restored with modification that the disciplinary authority on remand would be the present Chairman of the Bank. Petitioners have made an additional grievance with regard to subsistence allowance. They state that some of the petitioners were under suspension while facing disciplinary proceedings. As the original appellate order restored status quo, they continued to be under 6 suspension but they complain that effectively they are not being paid their subsistence allowance. The subsistence allowance is being deposited by the Bank in their loan account/OD account and adjusted against outstanding dues effectively saying that they received no money. The payment is not being made to them through their personal savings account. This is disputed by the learned counsel for the Bank. Be that as it may, it is not necessary to get into this controversy as it is expected that the Bank would ensure payment of subsistence allowance to the suspended employees in practical terms so that employees get cash in hand as subsistence allowance. In view of the above directions and observations, it is expected that the respondents would abide by the original appellate order as modified immediately. M.E.H./ (Navaniti Prasad Singh)