S.Raman Pillai vs Union Of India Rep.By on 8 March, 2019
“2. The Extra Departmental Agents system
in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs
is in vogue since 1854. The object
underlying it is to cater to postal needs of
the rural communities dispersed in remote
areas. The system avails of the services of
schoolmasters, shopkeepers, landlords
and such other persons in a village who
have the faculty of reasonable standard of
literacy and adequate means of livelihood
and who, therefore, in their leisure can
assist the Department by way of gainful
avocation and social service in ministering
to the rural communities in their postal
needs, through maintenance of simple
accounts and adherence to minimum
procedural formalities, as prescribed by
the Department for the purpose. [See:
Swamy's Compilation of Service Rules for
Extra Departmental Staff in Postal
Department p. 1.]”
Further, a three-judge Bench of this Court in the
case of The Superintendent of Post Offices &
Ors. v. P.K. Rajamma[(1977) 3 SCC 94] held as
under: