HC stays order in bank employees union case

The Madras High Court here today stayed the order of a single judge restraining two retired employees of a nationalised bank from participating in negotiations with management in employer-employee relations.   The First bench comprising Chief Justice R K Agrawal and Justice M Sathyanrayanan directed interim stay till December 2 on an appeal filed by L Balasubramanyan and S Srinivasan, office bearers of the AllIndia Overseas Bank Employees Union.  Balasubramanyan and Srinivasan moved the court against the October 11 order of the court.  Senior council A L Somayaji who appeared on behalf of the retired exployees submitted that no law prevents retired employees from becoming office bearers and as per the bye-laws they are entitled to continue in their respective posts. ..Read more >> Click here

MBAs hired last year can retain PSU bank jobs - Legal Issue with Cental Bank of India

A division bench of Justice S J Vazifdar and Justice K R Shriram ruled that the court's April 2013 order only banned future campus recruitments and not those recruitments that had already been made.

"It is clear to us on a reading of the judgment as a whole Mumbai: Months after the Bombay high court held that public sector banks could not recruit students through campus placements, it has come to the aid of around 238 MBA students who were selected from various campuses last year by Central Bank of India (CBI). Hearing a plea by one such that it did not operate in respect of the 238 candidates, including the petitioner," said the judges. The court said while it could not overturn the judgment, it could interpret the order. Jain had been selected for the assistant manager post, with 238 others, following campus placements held by CBI in February 2012. 

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Bank can’t fire employee for nudity in closed room, Bombay high court observes

An employer cannot question what his employee does inside a closed room, observed Bombay high court recently while restrainingState Bank of India from filling a top executive level position. The bank had terminated the service of its general manager (official language) for "tarnishing its image". Among the allegations was one that instead of attending a conference on September 11-12, 2012, in Chandigarh, he stayed back in the room and "was drinking throughout the day" and that the guest house's caretaker revealed he "was moving inside the room without clothes". 
A bench of Justice SJ Vazifdar and Justice KR Shriram heard a petition by Vannadil Balakrishnan, holding a doctorate in Hindi, challenging SBI's action saying he was denied opportunity of hearing. Balakrishnan worked for 23 years with the Central government before joining the bank through direct recruitment on November 16, 2011, on a one-year probation. He was summarily discharged on December 1, 2012.

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Ex-staff can’t represent union: HC

Political parties may no longer be able to control employees' unions and compel them to participate in strikes and protests sponsored by them if a proposal by the Madras high court takes effect. The court has suggested to the law commission and ministry of labour and welfare to amend the Trade Union Act to stop outsiders, including former employees, from being members or office bearers of employees' trade unions. Currently, employees' unions in several establishments are headed by non-employees, mostly representatives of political parties. "Even after retirement, if a person is allowed to continue as leader (of employees' union), it will abrogate the powers of the trade union, which is meant for collective bargaining. Serving employees alone are in a better position to understand the difficulties faced by other employees. 

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Court for restricting trade union membership to employees

The Madras High Court has asked the government to amend provisions of the Trade Unions Act and the Industrial Disputes Act to prevent outsiders from being representatives or officer-bearers of the trade union of any establishment. Justice N. Kirubakaran suggested this in his order restraining the Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai, from permitting two retired employees, L. Balasubramanian and S. Srinivasan, as president and secretary of the IOB Employees’ Union, to represent the employees in negotiations and discussions with the bank management. Originally, S. Valaiyapathy, an employee, approached the court to prevent the retired employees from participating in the negotiation and discussions with the management. Disposing of the petition filed by Mr. Valaiyapathy, Mr. Justice Kirubakaran said, “The bank is a credit institution and cannot deal with an outsider who is not bound by any declaration of secrecy.”

Source : The Hindu  18th October, 2013 >> Click here

Madras High Court stops SBI’s move to withdraw check-off facility

The Madras High Court on Thursday stopped India's largest bank State Bank of IndiaBSE 1.14 % from discontinuing what is called the "checkoff facility," an arrangement that gives its trade union easy access to the subscription fee paid by its officer members.  SBI's move to discontinue the check-off facility, effected during the term of its just-retired chairman Pratip Chaudhuri, was seen as a way to quell trade union activities. The High Court verdict was closely watched as an order supporting the axing of the facility could have made similar trade union arrangements elsewhere vulnerable. 

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Court asks SBI to debit money in favour of officers' bodies

In a contempt petition on which former State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Pratip Choudhuri appeared before the Justice today, the Madras High Court has asked the bank to debit an amount to the Bank’s System Suspense Account and credit it in favour of the 14 circle associations of the SBI officers. The amount, which should have deducted by the Bank from its officers in September towards the subscription for the officers' association under the check off facility, has to be credited in the account of the associations in the 14 bank circles on or before October 15. The decision was taken by Justice N Kirubakaran, on a suggestion put forward by the Bank that it could pay the amount which the officers had to pay towards the association's subscription for last month from its suspense account and it would adjust the amount from the officers' salary for the month of October.

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Protest against 7-day banking: Court quashes ‘memo’ against SBI officers

All-India State Bank of India Officers Association seems to have won a psychological edge in the campaign against introduction of seven-day service in the bank.

A Bench consisting of Justices Chitra Venkataraman and K.B.K Vasu of the Madras High Court allowed a writ appeal by the union in this connection.

SET ASIDE

The July 7 judgment quashed a charge memo against two senior officers of the bank implicating them for their act of registering protest during working hours. While doing so, the Bench also set aside an earlier order by a single judge who had dismissed the writ petitions filed to quash the charge memo.

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What if a cheque bounces? Here's a guide to the legal recourse available to you

Bounced cheques are one of the most common offences plaguing the financial world. According to the Supreme Court, there are over 40 lakh such pending cases in the country. A cheque can be dishonouredfor various reasons, the most common being insufficient funds in the account of the person drawing the cheque, and a mismatch of signatures with the bank records. But what do you do if you land a bad cheque? Here's a step-by-step guide to the legal recourse that is available to you.

Filing a criminal complaint

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Cheque bounce offence likely to go

The   government   will   soon    bring    an   amendment    in   the Negotiable  Instruments  (NI)  Act  that  will  restrict   banks  from dragging   a   person    to   court  for   an   offence   like   cheque  bounce.    All   such  cases,  after the changes are affected,  will have   to   be   decided   only   through  arbitration ,  conciliation or settlement by Lok Adalats. 

It is estimated that more than 30% of all the pending cases in courts across the country are either related to cheque bounce or traffic challans. The proposed amendment has been recently suggested by an inter-ministerial group (IMG), which was set up last year to make suggestions for necessary policy and legislative changes to deal with a large number of cases pending in various courts. 

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