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Informist, Wednesday, Apr. 1, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court Wednesday issued notices to the government and various banks on a contempt plea alleging that workmen and non-workmen employee directors have not been appointed on the boards of public sector banks for more than 10 years. The high court asked the government and banks to file a status report on the appointment of these directors and listed the contempt plea filed by All India Bank Officers' Confederation on Apr. 16.

 

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the confederation, said it had filed a petition in 2017 for the appointment of these directors. However, not one employee director had been appointed despite repeated orders of the court, said Bhushan.

 

In 2024, the high court had asked banks that had not complied with the formalities for appointment of workmen and non-workmen employee directors to immediately take the necessary steps. It had directed the government to do the needful in cases where a panel had already been prepared by the bank for directors and the names were to be processed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.

 

However, the government maintains that it is actively considering an overhaul of the regulations on the appointment of directors and all those appointments mentioned in 2024 were under review, said Bhushan. "In more than ten years, not one appointment has been made. This is really shocking! (INR) 50 trillion has been siphoned off in the last couple of years," said Bhushan.

 

The All India Bank Officers' Confederation said that the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1969 empowers the central government to make a scheme to include representation from workmen or non-workmen employees on the board of nationalised banks. According to the Nationalised Banks (Management and Miscellaneous Provisions) Scheme, 1970, a workman or non-workman employee director has to be nominated by the government from a panel of three such persons furnished to it by their representative union.

 

The petitioner contended that the intention behind workmen or non-workmen employee directors is to provide representation to every class of employees on the board of nationalised banks, but currently all the banks do not have any workmen or non-workmen employee directors on their board.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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