IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA CWP Nos. 2853, 3252 and 3522 of 2010. Date of decision: 5.7.2010. 1. CWP No. 2853 of 2010. Himachal Gramin Bank Karamchari Sangh & anr. ….. Petitioner. Vs. Himachal Gramin Bank & anr. …. Respondents. For the petitioner: Mr. R.L.Choudhary, Advocate. For the respondents. Mr. Ramakant Sharma, Advocate. 2. CWP No. 3252 of 2010. Akshay Kumar ….. Petitioner. Vs. Himachal Gramin Bank & anr. …. Respondents. For the petitioner: Mr. Dilip Sharma, Advocate. For the respondents. Mr. Ramakant Sharma, Advocate. 3. CWP No. 3522 of 2010. Ms. Vandita Sood ….. Petitioner. Vs. Himachal Gramin Bank & anr. …. Respondents. For the petitioner: Mr. Sanjay Dutt Vasudev, Advocate vice Mr. Rajinder Sharma, Advocate. For the respondents. Mr. Ramakant Sharma, Advocate. Coram The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Kurian Joseph, Chief Justice. The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Kuldip Singh, Judge. Whether approved for reporting?1 Justice Kurian Joseph, C.J. (Oral) The challenge in these writ petitions pertains to the alleged defective selection of Office Assistants under the first Whether the reporters of the local papers may be allowed to see the Judgment? - 2 - respondent Rural Bank. The selection is done under the Regional Rural Banks (Appointment and Promotion of Officers and other employees) Rules 1998. These rules have been framed by virtue of powers under Section 17 read with Section 29 of the Regional Rural Banks Act, 1976. Section 17 deals with staff of Regional Rural Banks, which reads as follows:- “17. Staff of Regional Rural Banks.- (1) A Regional Rural Bank may appoint such number of officers and other employees as it may consider necessary or desirable in such manner as may be prescribed for the efficient performance of its functions and may determine the terms and conditions of their appointment and service: Provided that, it shall be lawful for a Sponsor Bank, if requested so to do by a Regional Rural Bank sponsored by it, to send such number of officers or other employees on deputation to the Regional Rural Bank as may be necessary or desirable for the efficient performance of its functions; Provided further that the remuneration of officers and other employees appointed by a Regional Rural Bank shall be such as may be determined by the Central Government, and, in determining such remuneration, the Central Government shall have due regard to the salary structure of the employees of the State Government and the local authorities of comparable level and status in the notified area. (2) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, or any other law for the time being in force, no award, judgment, decree, decision or order of any industrial tribunal, Court or other authority, made before the commencement of this Act, shall apply to the terms and conditions in relation to the persons appointed by a Regional Rural Bank. - 3 - (3) The officers and other employees of a Regional Rural Bank shall exercise such powers and perform such duties as may be entrusted or delegated to them by the Board.” 2. Section 29(2)(ba) provides for framing of rules pertaining to manner in which the officers and other employees of the Regional Rural Bank shall be appointed. Section 2(e) defines “prescribed” as --- ”prescribed by rules made under this Act”. 3. Rule 6 provides for the manner in which the vacancies are to be filled up, which says that the same is to be done in terms of 3rd schedule to the rules. Clause 4 of schedule III deals with selection of Clerk-cum-cashier, Clerk-cum-typist (re-designated as office assistants.). Clauses 4(f) and (g) provide for the mode of selection and Constitution of a Committee in the matter of promotions. The same read as follows:- “(f) Mode of selection : (i) In the case of direct recruitment, the selection of candidates shall be made by the Banking Service Recruitment Board on the basis of written test and interview and in accordance with the procedure specified by them. (ii) In the case of promotion, the selection of the candidates shall be made by the Committee on the basis of written test, interview and performance appraisal reports. - 4 - (g) Committee The Committee (for considering promotion) shall consist of the following persons, namely:- (i) The Chairman of the concerned Regional Rural Bank or in his absence the General Manager in that Bank –- Chairman (ii) Two Senior most officers of the concerned Regional Rural Bank or in their absence two officers nominated by the Board of that Bank- -- Members. (iii) A director nominated by the National Bank--- Member. Note: If none of the members of the Committee belongs to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes the Board may nominate a person belonging to the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes as an additional member and such persons shall participate in the process of selection by the concerned Committee.” It is submitted on behalf of the Bank that the Selection Board had instructed and the Bank had decided to follow the provision “g” by constituting the committee for interview for the direct recruitment. 4. As per Annexure P-8, 64th Board of Directors of the first respondent- Regional Rural Banks thus constituted the Interview Committee. The resolution of Board reads as follows:- “On perusal of detailed Agenda Note by circulation in respect of formation of interview committee for recruitment of Office Assistant, Board resolved to accord its consent for the formation of Interview Committee as proposed in the table Agenda, as under:- • Chairman of the RRB - 5 - • Two Scale IV Officer of Sponsor Bank, (i.e. One General Manager and One Regional Development Manager of Bank) in seniority • One Nominee Director of NABARD and One Official representing SC/ST category However, Board members were of the opinion that if any members of selection committee belongs to SC/ST category, the fifth members (official) representing to SC/ST category be not included in the selection committee.” 5. It needs no elaborate discussion to note that the Constitution of the Interview Committee is not in terms of the Rules as extracted above. However, an attempt is made by the learned counsel appearing for the Bank to defend and justify the Constitution of the Committee as per Annexure P-8 by inviting reference to Sections 17 and 27 of the Regional Rural Banks Act 1976. According to the learned counsel, the officers deputed by the sponsored bank, namely, Punjab National Bank in terms of Section 17 and working in the Regional Bank ,can be nominated as members of the Interview Committee and that alone has been done. In other words, the submissions is that two scale-IV officers of the Punjab National Bank, who are working as officers in the Regional Rural Bank on deputation are to be treated as officers of the Rural Bank and only they were nominated as the members of the Interview Committee and thus the Committee has been validly constituted. We are afraid that the contention cannot be appreciated for reasons more than one. It has to be seen that as per Annexure P-8, the first respondent resolved to constitute the Interview Committee with the two scale IV officers of the sponsor - 6 - bank. It so happened that two officers who were on deputation happened to be working in the first respondent- Bank, and that will not otherwise validate an otherwise invalid constitution of the committee. As per the Rules, the Interview Committee shall consist of two senior most officers of the Regional Rural Bank concerned and only if those officers are not available, two officers are to be nominated by the Board to be the members of the Interview Committee. That is not what has been done in the instant case. The Board of Directors has nominated two scale IV officers of the Punjab National Bank. That is not permissible under the Rules. 6. It is also to be seen that there are no scale IV officers under the first respondent- Regional Bank. As per the Regional Rural Banks (Appointment and Promotion of Officers and other employees) Rules 1998, there are only three categories of officers, namely, group-A, group –B and group-C. It is also seen from Annexure P-4 that under first respondent- Regional Bank, there are only three scale of officers under Group- A officer cadre, Scale I , scale II and Scale III. Scale IV is available only under the sponsor bank, namely Punjab National Bank. 7. The learned counsel for the Bank has invited our attention to Section 27 of the Act, which reads as follows:- “27. Defects in appointment or constitution not to invalidate acts or proceedings.- (1) No act of a Chairman, acting in good faith, shall be invalid merely by reason of any defect in his appointment or in the procedure. - 7 - (2) No act or proceeding of any Board of directors or of any committee of a Regional Rural Bank shall be invalid merely on the ground of the existence of any vacancy in, or defect in the constitution of, such Board or committee, as the case may be. (3) Acts done by a person, acting in good faith, as a director or member of a committee of a Regional Rural Bank shall be valid, notwithstanding that it may afterwards be discovered that his appointment was invalid by reason of any defect or disqualification or had terminated by virtue of any provision contained in any law for the time being in force: Provided that nothing in this section shall be deemed to give validity to any act done by a director or a member of any committee of a Regional Rural Bank after his appointment has been shown to be Regional Rural Bank to be invalid or to have terminated.” 8. It is thus submitted that proceedings of Board of Directors in having constituted the Interview Committee cannot be rendered invalid merely on the ground of defect in the Constitution of the Committee. Section 15 of the Act provides for Constitution of Committees by the Board of Directors, which reads as follows:- “Committee of Board:- The Board may constitute such committees whether consisting wholly of directors or wholly of other persons or partly of directors and partly of other persons, as it may think fit, for such purposes as it may decide.” Thus, the committee referred to in Section 27 of the Act shall only be a Committee constituted in terms of Section 15 for the routine - 8 - business of the Bank. As far as Recruitment and Promotion Rules are concerned, such matters are specifically covered by the Regional Rural Banks (Appointment and Promotion of Officers and other employees) Rules 1998. Therefore, on the well established principle of generalia specialibus non derogant (the special excludes the general), matters which are specifically covered by the Rules, have to be governed by the rules only and any illegality or irregularity or deficiency in terms of rules cannot be cured by taking resort to Section 27 of the Act. 9. Therefore, having not constituted the Interview Committee in terms of Regional Rural Banks (Appointment and Promotion of Officers and other employees) Rules 1998, the selection now conducted is not legal and valid. Hence, Annexure P-8 in CWP No. 2853 of 2010, Annexure P-6 in CWP No. 3522 of 2010 and Annexure P -6 in CWP No. 3252 of 2010 are quashed. The pending applications, if any, are also disposed of. The reply filed by respondents No. 1 and 2 in CWP No. 35 of 2010 is taken on record. (Justice Kurian Joseph), Chief Justice. July 5, 2010. (Justice Kuldip Singh), (Hem) Judge.