The Madras High Court has impressed upon the need for nationalised institutions such as the State Bank of India (SBI) to sensitise its staff towards the need to maintain good conduct with its customers. “The employees must be reminded that their salaries are paid from and out of the transactions made by the customers,” the court has said.
Justice S.M. Subramaniam made the observations after he came across a counter affidavit filed on behalf of the SBI stating that stamp vendors can approach any other bank if they were not willing to pay cash-handling charges levied at the Treasury branch at Thousand Lights in Chennai for depositing money in the State government treasury.
“The above statement in the counter filed by the SBI is to be construed as an irresponsible statement. The SBI is a public sector bank and the authorities are public servants. The petitioners are depositing cash in the government accounts on behalf of the government through treasury challans issued to them.
“The statement portrays the administrative arrogance on the part of the authorities and the tenor of the statement is a threat to public administration as the stamp vendors have no option but to deposit money only in government accounts at SBI branches. Thus, this court is inclined to direct the Assistant General Manager, SBI, to initiate appropriate disciplinary proceedings,” the judge ordered.
The judge also held as illegal the demand made by SBI from stamp vendors to pay cash-handling charges whenever they deposit money in the government treasury. He pointed out that the State government, which holds accounts in the bank, itself had come on record to state that the bank could not collect such charges.
The orders were passed while allowing a batch of writ petitions filed by the stamp vendors in 2016. The petitioners claimed that they were forced by the bank to shell out ₹15 towards cash handling charges for every bundle of currency containing 100 notes. They stated that it was burdensome to pay such charges from the meagre commission they earn from selling stamp papers.
