The move to regularise the employment of temporary employees of Kerala Bank was stayed by a Single Judge of the Kerala High Court on Monday.

The court stayed the move on a petition filed by P.R. Haridas of Kottayam, who was on the rank list prepared for direct recruitment to the post of clerk/cashier in the erstwhile Kottayam District Co-operative Bank.

Incidentally, in an another petition, the State submitted before the court that there was no move to regularise the employees of the Kerala Bank. It was while considering the writ petition moved by A. Lijith of Kannur that the State made its mind known.

Detailed statements

After recording the submission in the case, the court had asked the State and the Kerala Bank to file detailed statements. The court posted the case for March 3.

In his petition, Mr. Haridas pointed out that the Kottayam Bank had not duly reported the vacancies to the Kerala Public Services Commission earlier and withheld the vacancies. The bank had also recruited persons who were not included on the rank list.

In his earlier petition, the Kerala High Court had passed an interim order directing the bank to provisionally report 45 vacancies to the Commission and the petition was still pending before the court, he submitted.

Amalgamation

The petitioner contended that his claim for the employment was with the Kerala Bank after the amalgamation of the erstwhile district cooperative banks to form the Kerala Bank. All the appointments to the Kerala Bank have to be filled through direct recruitment as advised by the PSC.

The Kerala Bank cannot resort to any other method of recruitment to fill the vacancies, he contended.

The petitioner contended that his right for appointment would be prejudiced if the Kerala Bank resorted to mass regularisation of temporary employees as there would not be any vacancies left for his appointment. The steps for the reported regularisation of employment were totally unjust and unsustainable, he contended.