Employees of Nationalised Banks are public servants, but they are neither civil servants, nor are they deemed as the employees of Government of India. Articles 309, 310 or 311 of the Constitution are not directly applicable to officers of the Nationalized Banks. However it is extremely relevant to have a basic knowledge of these Constitutional provisions, as the Conduct and Discipline provisions governing Bank employees are drawn in identical terms with the Government employees keeping in view the spirit of these Constitutional Provisions. The information given hereunder is reproduced from chapter 9 of Vigilance Manual of CVC as published in their web site. The Manual is deemed a confidential document. Chapter 9 deals with an academic or textual subject. Bank officers, who read this may kindly keep this in view. The present policy of the Government is to provide transparency in administration and making all relevant things known to the citizens.

Though proceedings are started under Departmental Inquiries and by way of prosecution under Prevention of Corruption Act, against several persons, not all are punished. This article is intended for the benefit of those innocent officers who face ordeals in their career, as I did face 11 charge sheets by way of persecution and victimization based personal vengence and animosity (for more details refer My Encounters with Corporate Corruption in my Service given in the another page of this site). With this introduction I give an account of the Constitutional Provisions as reproduced from Chapter 9 of CVC Manual.

Public servants have got a special relationship with their employer, viz. the Government that is in some aspects different from the relationship under the ordinary law, between the master and servant. It will, therefore, be appropriate to describe briefly the basic provisions of the Constitution pertaining to services. The Chief Vigilance Officers and officers handling vigilance cases will need to bear them in mind while processing disciplinary cases against Government servants.

Article 309 of the Constitution reads as follows: -

"309. Recruitment and Conditions of Service of Person Serving the Union or a State

"Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, Act of the appropriate Legislature may regulate the recruitment, and conditions of service of person appointed to public services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of any State:

"Provided that it shall be competent for the President or such person as he may direct in the case of services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union, and for the Governor of the State or such person as he may direct in the case of services and posts in connection with the affairs of the State, to make rules regulating the recruitment, and the conditions of service of persons appointed, to such services and posts until provision in that behalf is made by or under an Act of the appropriate Legislature under this article, and any rules so made shall have effect subject to the provisions of any such Act".

The above Article empowers the Parliament to make laws to regulate the recruitment and conditions of service of persons appointed to public services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union. It also authorities the President to make rules for the above purposes until provision in that behalf is made by or under an Act of Parliament.

Parliament has not so far passed any law on the subject. Recruitment and the conditions of service of Central Government servants in general continue to be governed by rules made by the President under Article 309. The rules made under the Article which are relevant for the present purpose are: -

1. The C.C.S. (Conduct) Rules, 1964.

2. The C.C.S. (C.C.A.) Rules, 1965.

3. The Railway (D.&A.) Rules, 1968.

4. The C.C.S. (T.S.) rules, 1965.

The Constitution also makes special provision relating to conditions of service of certain categories of public services. The more important of these are given below.

Under Article 312 of the Constitution, Parliament has enacted the All India Services Act, 1951. Under Sec. 3 of that Act, the President has framed rules regulating various aspects of conditions of services of persons appointed to the All India Services. The three All India Services created so far are

1. the I.A.S.,

2. the I.P.S. and

3. the Indian Forest Service.

Article 98 of the Constitution empowers the Parliament to regulate by law the recruitment and conditions of service of person appointed to the secretarial staff of either House of Parliament. However, as no such law has yet been made by the Parliament, the recruitment to the Secretariats of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and the conditions of service of the staff of the two Houses are regulated by the rules made by the President under Article 98 (2) of the Constitution in consultation with the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha respectively.

Under Article 146 (2) of the Constitution, conditions of service of officers and servants of the Supreme Court are regulated by rules made by the Chief Justice subject to the approval of the President in certain matters.

Indian Audit and Accounts Department

Under Article 148 (5) the conditions of service of persons serving in the Indian Audit and Accounts Departments are regulated by rules made by President after consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. No separate rules have been made by the President under this Article. The rules framed by the President for the other civil services and posts are made applicable to persons serving in the Indian Audit and Accounts Department after consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

Defence personnel

The conditions of service of the Defence personnel paid out of the Defence Services Estimates and who are subject to the Army Act, 1950 (46 of 1950), the Navy Act, 1957 (62 of 1957) and the Air Force Act, 1950 (45 of 1950) are governed by their respective Acts and the rules made thereunder.

On occasions the Government engages the services of specialists or experts or other persons for a specified period on special contract of service. Such contract would normally provide inter alia for the duration of appointment and for conditions regarding termination of service. In some cases the contact may expressly provide that in certain specified matters the conditions of service of the person appointed on contract will be governed by specific rules governing Government servants in these matters. In certain other cases the rules governing the conditions of service of Government servant may be made applicable to a person appointed on a contract by a general reference to them.

Except in the case of appointments made on a specific contract, the relationship between the Government and the Government servant is not based on a contract. The conditions of service to which a Government Servant is subject cannot be deemed to constitute the terms of a contract (S. Framji Vs. Union of India, AIR 1960 Bomb. 14 and Fakir Chand Vs. Chakravarti, AIR 1954 Cal. 566). The essential requirement of a contract is agreement between the contracting parties in respect of the terms of the contract. In the case of a Government servant there is no such agreement. The legal relationship between the Government and Government Servant has been defined by the courts as something analogous to status, the duties and obligations of which are fixed by law and are quite independent of the will of the person affected.

The power to make rules conferred by Article 309 of the Constitution or by other statutes includes the power to add, amend or alter the rules by virtue of Article 367 of the Constitution and Section 21 of the General Clauses Act, 1897. Accordingly, so long as the Constitutional provision are not contravened, the rules governing the conditions of service of Government servants can be altered or amended by the Government from time to time according to the exigencies of the public service without the consent of a Government servant concerned who will be bound by such amendment or alteration in the rules. The Privy Council in Venkata Rae's case (AIR 1937 P.C. 27) observed that rules which are manifold in numbers and most minute in particularity are all capable of change from time to time. The Supreme Court also in Grewal's case (A.I.R. 1959 S.C. 512) observed that numerous rules relating to conditions of service may have to be changed from time to time if the exigencies of public service so require. There is no question of consent of the Government servant concerned at least by reason of the sheer impossibility of securing such consent from every one. It is also open to the Government to alter service rules retrospectively, which may affect even the existing incumbents adversely. However, the existing incumbents are generally given protection with a view to avoiding hardship to them. The rights accruing to a Government servant under the conditions of service in force at the time of his retirement cannot be taken away after his retirement.

A unilateral amendment or alteration of specified conditions of service embodied in a contract of service is not permissible (Jogesh Vs. Union of India I.L.R. 1954 - 56 Assam 383). However, any rules relating to conditions of service of Government servants which are made applicable to a person appointed on contract by a general reference to them in the contact can be changed unilaterally.

Certain undertakings are run and managed by Government departmentally e.g., ordnance factories under the Ministry of Defence, workshops of the P&T Department, workshops under the Railways, Delhi Milk Scheme, etc. Employees of such undertakings are appointed and paid by Government and they are Government servants for all purposes and will be governed by the normal rules and regulations applicable to Government servants. However, provisions of the Factories Act and of the Labour Laws will also apply to them to the extent the employees of such establishments are covered by such laws.

The employees of public sector undertakings which have been constituted as corporate bodies and constitute separate legal entities under the relevant statutes or which have been registered as companies under the Companies Act are not Government servants. They are governed by rules and regulations made by the respective undertakings under the powers vesting in them under the relevant statutes/Articles of Memorandum. Government Servants who may be employed under such undertakings on Foreign Service terms continue, for purpose of disciplinary action, to be governed by Government rules and regulations.

A basic feature of the employer - employee relationship is the Master's power to terminate the services of the servant. The extent of this power, however, varies with different categories of employment. For most categories of employees, laws and regulations exist regulating the right of the employer in this behalf. In respect of Government servants the Constitution itself makes certain specific provisions.

Article 310 of the Constitution reads as follows:

" 310. Tenure of office of persons serving the Union or a State: -

1. "Except as expressly provided by this Constitution, every person who is a member of a defence service or of a civil service of the Union or of an All India Service or holds any post connected with defence or any civil post under the Union holds office during the pleasure of the President, and every person who is a member of a civil service of a State or holds any civil post under a State holds office during the pleasure of the Governor of the State.

2. "Notwithstanding that a person holding a civil post under the Union or a State holds office during the pleasure of the President or, as the case may be of the Governor of the State, any contract under which a person, not being a member of a defence service or of an All-India service or of a civil service of the Union or a State, is appointed under this Constitution to hold such a post may, if the President or the Governor, as the case may be, deems it necessary in order to secure the services of a person having special qualifications, provide for the payment to him of compensation, if before the expiration of an agreed period that post is abolished or he is, for reasons not connected with any misconduct on his part, required to vacate the post"

The above Article provides that a Central Government servant holds office during the pleasure of the President and therefore his tenure could be terminated by the President at pleasure. Practically, all Government servants, both on the civil and on the defence side, are covered by this Article.

The exercise of the pleasure is, however, subject to the express provisions of the Constitution made in relation to certain special services and posts and to the provisions of Article 311 which lays down, in relation to holders of posts covered by that Article, the manner in which the services of a Government servant could be terminated. In that sense the requirements of Article 311 are of the nature of a proviso to Article 310. The exercise of pleasure by the President under Article 310 is thus controlled and regulated by the provisions of Article 311 (A.I.R. 1958 S.C.36).