Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 17: High Court has held that the plea against the State Cooperative Bank (SCB) Ltd is not maintainable with regard to the service disputes between the bank and its employees as the Government does not have full control over the bank.
Hearing the plea filed by the bank employee with regard to suspension period, Justice Sanjay Dhar said the service dispute is not amenable to the writ jurisdiction of this court. “… even though a writ petition may be maintainable against the respondent Bank in respect of the matters that fall within the ambit of public law acts, yet those actions of the respondent Bank which fall within the sphere of private law, which includes a service dispute between the Bank and its employees, are not amenable to the writ jurisdiction of this Court”, Court recorded.
Court has held the petition of employee is not maintainable after the bank counsel has vehemently raised the issue of maintainability of the writ petition on the ground that the Bank is a Society registered under the Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Societies Act and, as such, the instant writ petition is not maintainable.
“The objection to the maintainability of the writ petition raised by the respondents is upheld and the writ petition is held to be not maintainable. The same is, accordingly, dismissed, leaving it open to the petitioners to work out appropriate remedy”. Justice Dhar concluded.
The Byelaws court added, made by a Cooperative Society registered under the Act do not have force of law as these are in the nature of a contract between the Society and its members. Therefore, service conditions of the employees of a Society governed by the Byelaws cannot be enforced through a writ petition.
“It can safely be stated that the respondent Bank is an autonomous body upon which the Government has no pervasive or deep control, with regard to running of its affairs. The management of the respondent Bank is accountable to its own members. Thus, affairs of the respondent Bank are administered by the management in accordance with the democratically expressed will of its members”, Justice Dhar said.
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