Bank staff as public servants

Apropos of your editorial “Public disservice” (FE, March 26), as per your paper, the employees in private sector banks should not be brought within the definition of public servants. In this context, Section 46A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 is reproduced below: Section 46A: Chairman, Director, etc., is to be public servants for the purposes of Chapter IX of the Indian Penal Code. Every chairman who is appointed on a whole-time basis, managing director, director, auditor, liquidator, manager and any other employee of a banking company shall be deemed to be a public servant for the purposes of Chapter IX of the Indian Penal Code(45 of 1860). As such, the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 itself states that all the employees of a banking company shall be deemed to be public servants. This is required in the case of banking companies as they accept large amount of deposits from the public. The problem arose due to the fact that the Chapter IX of the Indian Penal Code was repealed and the corresponding provisions were included in the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Section 46A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 should have been amended at that time and the words “for the purposes of Chapter IX of the Indian Penal Code” should have been replaced by the words “for the purposes of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988”. In the Global Trust Bank case, the lawyers of Ramesh Gelli and others were trying to take advantage of this legal lacuna in the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The issue has been set right now by the Supreme Court and they have done what should perhaps have been done by the legislature.