- (1.) The petitioners who are employees of respondent 1 National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (hereinafter referred to as 'the Bank') request for a direction to the Bank to give them fitment benefits which were given to their counterparts who were in the Banks service prior to 1/02/1984.
(2.) The admitted facts are that on 1/02/1984, petitioner 1 was in the Banks service as a 'grade B officer and was promoted to 'grade C officers cadre on 7/03/1984. Petitioners 2 to 4 were not in the service of the Bank on 1/02/1984. Petitioner 2 was appointed as a 'grade C officer and petitioners 3 and 4 were appointed as 'grade B' officers, on various dates in March 1984. Petitioners 5 and 6 were in the Banks service in Clerical Grade prior to 1/02/1984 and were appointed as officers 'grade A after the said date.
(3.) The respondent 1 Bank came into existence on 12/07/1982 under an Act of Parliament, viz. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Act, 1981. The initial staff of the Bank consisted of the employees of the Reserve Bank of India and of those recruited by the Reserve Bank of India exclusively to serve the erstwhile Agriculture Refinance and Development Corporation which was taken over by the respondent 1 Bank. On 24/02/1986, the Bank revised pay scales of all its officers as a result of a settlement on the charter of demands submitted by the Banks Officers Association called NABARD Officers' Association. One of the demands of the Association was that the revision in the scales of their pay should be on the same basis as of the revision of the officers in the Reserve Bank of India. It appears that the NABARD Officers Association had submitted its charter of demands on 30/11/1984 which was on the same lines as the charter of demands submitted by the Officers Association of the Reserve Bank of India to the Reserve Bank of India. On 9/10/1985, the Reserve Bank of India revised the pay scales of its officers w. e. f. 1/02/1984. As a result, the respondent 1, Bank also revised the pay scales of its officers, as stated earlier, on 24/02/1986, and to bring it on parity with the pay scales of the Reserve Bank of India, gave effect to them also from 1/02/1984. Hence the importance of the date 1/02/1984. Incidentally it may be stated that the revision of pay scales of the officers in the entire Banking Industry was brought into effect from that date. The said date is thus not arbitrarily fixed by the respondent Bank for giving effect to the revision of pay scales.;