Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Arpan De vs Uoi & Ors on 22 April, 2019
Author: Amrita Sinha
Bench: Amrita Sinha
1
03
22.04.2019.
d.p.
W.P. 4178 (W) of 2019
Arpan De
-versus
UOI & Ors.
Mr. Nirmalendu Ganguly.
...For the Petitioner.
Mr. Dipanjan Datta.
...For the Respondent No.2.
None appears on behalf of the United Bank of India in spite of service. Affidavit-of-service is on record.
The petitioner is an employee of the Syndicate Bank, Harishpur Branch.
In response to an advertisement published by the United Bank of India for the purpose of recruitment of Probationary Officers/Management Trainee the petitioner made online application for being appointed in the said post. The petitioner cleared the preliminary and the main examination.
The petitioner was directed to appear in the interview fixed on 30th January, 2019. On the said date the petitioner appeared for the interview but the United Bank of India did not permit him to take part in the interview process as the petitioner was not able to produce a hard copy of the No Objection Certificate which was issued in his favour by his employer Syndicate Bank. The petitioner had a soft copy of the No Objection Certificate. The petitioner immediately lodged an online complaint to the Bank. The Bank 2 authorities informed the petitioner through email that the list of documents to be submitted at the time of interview has been displayed well in advance in the advertisement/notification. Hence the candidates, who fail to adhere to the terms and conditions of the advertisement/interview call letter, will not be allowed to appear in the interview. The ticket is marked as closed and cannot be reopened.
The employer of the petitioner i.e. the Bank Manager of the Syndicate Bank, Harishpur Branch vide a certificate dated 29th January, 2019 confirmed that the branch office did not receive the original hard copy of the No Objection Certificate which was sent from the Regional Office via post. Accordingly the print out of the soft copy of the same which was sent via email was handed over to the petitioner.
It has been submitted that the petitioner has received the hard copy in the meantime and he is in possession of the No Objection Certificate which was issued by the Regional office of the Syndicate bank.
It appears from the advertisement that the candidates serving in Nationalised banks were required to produce 'No Objection Certificate' from their employer at the time of interview. The petitioner did not have a hard copy of the No Objection Certificate but the same was a print out of the soft copy.
It has been submitted that the branch where the petitioner is working is at a very remote place and the original hard copy which was sent by the Regional office through post was not received by 3 the petitioner prior to the date of the interview. The petitioner received the same on a later date.
The requirement of the NOC is to make the employer aware that the employee is participating in another recruitment process and he may switch over to the new job in case he is successful. The employer should not be caught by surprise if the employee suddenly walks out of the job.
In recent days with the advancement of technology communications are often made through online process primarily with the intension to save time and money. It results in prompt delivery of documents. Chances of documents getting lost in transit are minimized. It speeds up the decision making process. Soft copy of a document can always be authenticated. The respondent bank ought to move with the time and not make out issues over trivial matters.
The advertisement did not mention that a candidate will not be allowed to produce a print out of the soft copy of the NOC issued in his favour by his employer. The original hard copy of the NOC may have been required for the purpose of verification and for comparing the same with the original.
The petitioner was fortified with a certificate dated 29th January 2019 issued in his favour by the Branch Manager, Syndicate Bank, Harishpur Branch wherein it was clearly mentioned that the original copy of the no objection certificate was not received from the regional office but a soft copy of the same sent via email from the regional office was handed over to the petitioner for the purpose of appearing in the interview to be held 4 on 30th January 2019. The Bank ought to have accepted the soft copy and verified the same from the Issuing Authority.
Debarring the petitioner from appearing in the interview only because he was in possession of the soft copy of the No Objection Certificate and not the hard copy does not appear to be a good and valid ground for not permitting the petitioner to appear in the interview.
In view of the above, the instant writ petition is disposed of by directing the respondent No. 3 to consider the case of the petitioner for taking interview for selection in the post of Probationary Officers/Management Trainee of the Bank after verifying the No Objection Certificate issued by his employer. It goes without saying that in case the petitioner is successful in the said interview the Bank will take consequential steps in accordance with the recruitment notice.
Such steps to be taken within a period of three weeks from the date of communication of this order.
W.P No. 4178 (W) 2019 is disposed of accordingly.
Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, shall be given to the parties as expeditiously as possible on compliance of all necessary formalities.
( Amrita Sinha, J.)