C O M M O N O R D E R

The prayer sought for in both these writ petitions is for issue of Writ of Declaration to declare the Circular issued by the 3rd respondent dated 24.10.2019 and the consequential circular issued by the 1st respondent Bank dated 25.11.2019 as illegal and unauthorized and consequently to declare both the circulars as inoperative and non-est in the eye of law.

2. The case of the petitioners in short is as follows:

The petitioner is a registered trade union representing the officers and supervisory staff working in the Respondent Bank respectively. The membership, admission, register of members and removal of membership are defined under the Rules and Bye-laws and such right of admission of the membership is vested purely at the discretion of the Union and no one can automatically become the member on mere submissions of application form. The department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, issued circular dated 24.10.2019, to SBI and all other nationalized banks regarding online facility for recording/modifying employee mandate for deduction of association membership subscription from the salary and linking the same to HRMS for auto deduction. The said circular is against the basic tenets of Trade Union rights to admit the members and regulate the same. By enabling auto-admission through an entry in HRMS package by an applicant, the Union is deprived of its right to accept or reject membership of an individual applicant on valid grounds. Consequent upon the above circular issued by the 3rd respondent dated 24.10.2019, the 1st respondent bank has decided to implement the same and communicated such decision through its impugned circular dated 25.11.2019. Though the petitioners objected through their representation dated 18.11.2019, the implementation of those circulars is in the progress.

Hence, the present writ petitions.

3. The respondents 1 and 2 filed a counter affidavit, wherein it is stated as follows:

The ultimate deduction from the salary of an employee towards subscription of Union is only at his/her written request and not at the request of the Union. Such request for deduction of subscription from salary was hitherto submitted in physical format which is now digitalized and the employees are advised to submit the same through HRMS. The said guidelines are only to align with the advent of technology and seamless movement of such request and for immediate implementation of such request of deduction of subscription and therefore, there is no violation of any legal right of the petitioner. The deduction from the salary of an employee towards union subscription happens only based on their written request. The Bank has no say in the right of an employee to be a member of union /association or to maintain its membership. This position continues even after the impugned notification. The 1st respondent Bank has no intention to undermine the legitimate rights of the recognised unions or control their membership and therefore, the apprehension of the petitioner in this regard is not justified. The digital process has commenced from 7th December 2019 which was earlier in physical format. Any employee who is allowed to become a member of trade union belonging to any of the registered trade Union in the respondent bank can make further change only between 7th and 14th of every month.

4. A reply affidavit is filed by the petitioner wherein it is stated that admission of members and the right of admission is vested with the Union and by introduction of HRMS procedure, the employee can straightaway log in the system and claim membership by authorizing the respondents 1 and 2 to deduct subscription to the Union. It is further stated that the procedure to be followed by an employee is to apply for admission to the Union in the prescribed format and the Union, on receipt of such application, will scrutinize the same and decide. It is further stated that only after admission into the Union, the qu