The main legal point established is that the amalgamation of banks under the 1980 Act, specifically under S. 9, is permissible and within the scope of the Act's provisions.

( 1 ) HEARD Sri Raj Kumar Jain, learned Senior Advocate, appearing for the petitioners, Sri K. L. Grover, learned Senior Advocate, representing the respondent No. 3, and Sri Shambhu Nath Srivastava, learned Senior Standing counsel of the Central Government, appearing for the respondents Nos. 1 and 2.

( 2 ) AT the out set, Sri Jain states that the relief Nos. (i) and (iii) are not pressed, and that the writ petition should be treated to be confined to relief nos. (ii) and (iv) only.

( 3 ) THUS, the surviving twin reliefs claimed by the petitioners are :a. for issuance of a writ of certiorari, order or direction in the nature of certiorari, quashing the notification dated 4/09/1993, a photo copy whereof is Annexure-1 to the petition, and;b. for issuance of a writ of mandamus, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents to implement the agreements/settlements filed as Annexures 3 to 23-A to the writ petition.

( 4 ) THE impugned notification dated 4th Sepetmber, 1993 has been issued by the Central Government in exercise of powers conferred upon it by S. 9 of the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1980, hereinafter called the 1980 Act, whereby the scheme called the New Bank of India (Amalgamation and Transfer of Undertaking) Scheme, 1993 has been formulated. The scheme stipulates that on the commencement of the scheme the undertakings of New Bank of India shall be transferred to, and shall vest in, Punjab National Bank. The scheme, inter alia, provides that unless otherwise expressly provided by the scheme all contracts, deeds, bonds, agreements, power of attorney, and other instruments of whatever nature subsisting or having effect, immediately before the commencement of the scheme and to which the transferor bank is a party or which are in favour of the transferor bank, shall be of full force and effect against or in favour of the transferee bank, and may be enforced or acted upon as fully and effectively as if in the place of the transferor bank the transferee bank had been a party thereto or as if they had been issued in favour of the transferee bank.

( 5 ) LEARNED counsel of the petitioners submits that the transfer of the undertakings of the New Bank of India to and vesting in Punjab National Bank is illegal in as much as S. 9 of the 1980 Act does not empower the Central Government to make the scheme of amalgamation of any "corresponding new bank" envisaged under the 1980 Act with the "corresponding new bank" brought into existence upon enforcement of the provisions contained in the Banking Companies Act (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970, hereinafter called the 1970 Act.

( 6 ) ACCORDING to the learned counsel for the petitioners, the New Bank of India is a "corresponding new bank" brought into existence by virtue of 1980 Act and the Punjab National Bank is a "corresponding new bank" which came into existence by virtue of 1970 Act. Therefore, the learned counsel submits that the amalgamation of the "corresponding new bank" envisaged under 1980 Act with "corresponding new bank" conceived under 1970 Act is beyond the scope of powers conferred under S. 9 of the 1980 Act.

( 7 ) COUNTERING the contention of the learned counsel of the petitioners, the learned counsel representing the respondents submit that a careful scrutiny and meaningful analysis of the provisions of 1980 Act would reveal that amalgamation of "corresponding new bank" contemplated under 1980 Act with "corresponding new bank" contemplated by 1970 Act is fully covered under the provisions of S. 9 of 1980 Act, and that impugned amalagamation of New Bank of India with Punjab National Bank is quite in accordance with provisions of law, suffering from no infirmity. 7

( 8 ) FOR proper and effective appreciation of the rival contentions of the learned counsel of the parties, it is apposite to take note of various provisions of S. 9 of the 1980 Act. the said section is,therefore, q