Writ petition for pension regulations is maintainable against private banks if public law element is involved.

Prabha Sridevan, J.

The petitioners were originally employees of the Bank of Madura which has since been amalgamated with ICICI Bank, the respondent herein, and they prayed for a writ of mandamus that they should be granted pension in accordance with the Bank of Madura Employees Pension Regulations. The prayer was not granted both on the ground of maintainability and on merits. Hence the employees have filed this appeal.

.2. The facts are as follows:

.On 30.01.1996, the Bank of Madura introduced for the first time the Bank of Madura Employees Pension Regulations (BoMPR). This was modified in 1999, incorporating provisions relating to the optees of Bank of Madura Employees Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS in short). Then on 10-03-2001, the Scheme of amalgamation of BoM with ICICI came into effect with the sanction of RBI as per the Banking Regulations Act.

.3. On 29-06-2001, the representatives of BoM Association and ICICI Bank worked out an agreement to facilitate the integration process and certain clauses of this agreement are relied on by the appellants. On 19-09-2002, another agreement was entered into between the ICICI, Bank Officers Association(BOA) and the ICICI Bank. In this, the earlier settlement is specifically referred to and it also states that all earlier agreements are superceded. In 2003, the appellants agreed to the Early Retirement Option. In 2005, the All India Bank Officers federation issued guidelines for calculating pension as per 8th bipartite settlement. This is the background against which the rights of the parties have to be decided.

4. The learned Counsel for the appellants submitted that pension is a right which cannot be mutilated. Article 226 of the Constitution can be invoked if this right is violated. He referred to various clauses in the Regulations and the Agreement to support his case. He submitted that the Dearness Allowance is the cushion for the pensioners against the rising inflation and that cannot be taken away. There can be no decision by the respondent which adversely affects the right of the BoM Employees. The learned Counsel submitted that it was agreed that the employees who had opted for the pension benefit will be eligible for the same as per the Regulations. It was submitted that the word the "emoluments" would include "dearness allowance" and the Scheme of amalgamation provides that the erstwhile BoM employees will be entitled to receive emoluments which are not less favourable than what they received earlier. He submitted that the deprivation of the right to recive dearness allowance affects the right to life as envisaged in Art. 21. He referred to the following decisions:

.(i) AIR 1969 SC 1306 (Praga Tools Corpn. Vs. C.V. Imanual)

.(ii) 1999 (3) LLN 310 (A.K. Ansari Vs. Bharat Overseas Ltd.)

(iii) W.P.No.32502 of 2003 etc. batch dated 26-11-2008 (V.Kannappan Vs. Additional Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Company Affairs)

(iv) 2008 (3) LLN 320 = Manu/TN/0056/2008 (ICICI Bank Ltd. Vs. Lakshminarayanan)

.(v) 2004 SCC (L&S) 214 (Grid Corporation of Orissa Vs. Rasananda Das) (vi) 2005 WLR 820 (N. Venkatramani Vs. Indian Overseas Bank)

5. The learned Senior Counsel for the respondent submitted that the issue is squarely covered by the decision of the Supreme Court in the Federal Bank Ltd. Vs. Sagar Thomas (2003 (10) SCC 733). He referred to ICICI Bank Vs. Lakshmi Narayan (2008(3) LLN 320 = Manu/TN/0056/2008), in the case of the same respondent and in respect of the same Pension Regulations, a Division Bench of this Court had held that the writ is not maintainable. He also read out the various agreements to which at least two of the appellants were parties, where mutually acceptable terms have been agreed upon and now the appellant cannot claim anything beyond that. He further submitted that the ICICI Bank does not have a pension Scheme for its employees, and it is only to honour the commitment made to the erstwhile BoM employees that the respondent had decided