The order came on a bunch of petitions filed by the Shikshak Bharati and Mumbai Teachers Democratic Fund
The Bombay High Court set aside a government order that compelled 30,000 teacher and non-teaching staff to open salary accounts with a cooperative bank. The court also questioned the change of heart of Education Minister Vinod Tawde on the functioning of the bank.
"When the present state education minister was the Leader of Opposition in 2013, he found various irregularities and illegalities in the functioning of the Mumbai District Cooperative Bank, he had then also written a letter to the Governor, informing about the same. But when he became a minister, the bank has now become competent and clean. We fail to understand this change," said a division bench of Justice B R Gavai and Justice B P Colabawala on Friday.
The judges were quick to clarify that the court was not expressing any opinion on the workings of MDCB, as they nixed a government resolution of June 3, 2017.
The order came on a bunch of petitions filed by the Shikshak Bharati and Mumbai Teachers Democratic Fund. The court said, "The scope of judicial intervention in policy and administrative matter is very limited, but when a policy is not rational, the court can interfere in the matter."
The government had argued that the diversion of salary deposits to the cooperative bank from the Union Bank was under scrutiny for some time, and the decision is important to strengthen the cooperative movement. This contention was rejected by the court.
As per the government resolution salaries of all employees, which run into ?110 crore every month, will now be deposited in the Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank (MDCCB). The bank has been earlier facing an inquiry into misappropriation of funds.
The court said, "We have seen several cooperative banks go bankrupt, they fail to pay the account holders/depositors and even pension amounts to their own employees. In such a scenario, there seems to be no logical reasoning in changing the bank accounts of teachers to a cooperative bank." It added that as the government takes care of its employees, similar support be given to teachers.
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