Maharashtra State Cooperative Agricultural and Rural Development Bank Ltd., The Managing Director, Maharashtra State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank Limited and The District Branch Manager, Maharashtra State Co-operative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank Limited vs Shri Annasaheb Bandu Patil and Others

B.H. Marlapalle, J.—This Petition was heard for sometime and Mr. Vinod Jadhav, the Learned Counsel appearing for the Respondent employees in the course of his arguments has invited my attention to the affidavit in reply filed on 18-4-2007 by Shri Annasaheb Bandu Patil (Respondent No. 1). Alongwith the said affidavit in reply certain documents have been brought on record and they are as under:

(a) Note dated 5-3-2002 prepared and signed by officers of Kolhapur District Cooperative Rural and Agricultural Multipurpose Development Bank Ltd., Kolhapur.

(b) the Chart annexed to the said note giving the details of the amount payable to each of the 8 Respondents on account of removal of disparity which is the subject matter of this petition.

(c) letter dated 20-3-2002 addressed by the Kolhapur District Cooperative Rural and Agricultural Multipurpose Development Bank Ltd to the Manager of the Apex Bank, alongwith a resolution passed on 5-3-2002 by the managing committee.

It is clear from these documents that the District Bank came into existence as earlier w.e.f. 1-10-2001 and as per the letter dated 14/19-12-2001 issued by the Apex Bank, the issue regarding the disparity regarding pay fixation of the employees in the respective District Banks was required to be settled by the local committee only. Consequently, Kolhapur District Bank passed a resolution and proposed by way of settlement with 8 respondent employees to remove the disparity from 1-7-1987 as against the claim from 1-7-1985. The amount payable to the 8 Respondents from 1-7-1987 would come to Rs. 9,38,000/-and the employees would forgo an amount of Rs. 1,40,395/-from 1-7-1985 to 30-6-1987. The said agreed amount was to be paid to each of the 8 Respondents after deducting an amount of Rs. 15,000/ which was paid earlier in obedience of the order passed by this Court on 5-7-1996. Alongwith the said resolution, the chart annexed has given the net amount payable to each of the 8 employees for removing disparities from 1-7-1987 onwards and 3 of the claimants are no more. All the other 5 have already retired. This resolution was considered by the Managing Committee of the Kolhapur District Cooperative Rural and Agricultural Multipurpose Development Bank and was accepted. It was further resolved on 5-3-2002 by the managing committee that the Apex Bank at Mumbai be requested to withdraw the petition so that the settlement arrived at by the District Level Bank with the Respondents could be implemented.

I am, therefore, satisfied that as of now the challenge in this petition has become stale and as per the circular dated 14/19-12-2001 issued by the Petitioner Bank, District Level Banks were authorised to settle the issue of disparities at local levels and accordingly the Kolhapur District Cooperative Rural and Agricultural Multipurpose Development Bank has already resolved to settle and has infact settled the dispute with the Respondent employees and it has agreed for the disparities be removed w.e.f. 1-7-1987 and the employees will give up the claim from 1-7-1985 to 30-6-1987.

Hence, the petition is disposed as infructuous. Rule is discharged with no order as to costs. The District Level Bank shall act upon the settlement and disburse the amount agreed to be paid and as referred to hereinabove within a period of four weeks from today.