TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2002 (12) TMI 605
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....r of Undertakings), Act, 1970 (hereinafter referred to as '1970 Act'). The banks were said to be over-staffed. For the purpose of effective management , man power planning was contemplated by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, pursuant whereto and in furtherance whereof, the Government considered the desirability of introducing voluntary retirement scheme to help the banks to right-size their force. In a letter dated 22.5.200, the Director (IR & BOII), Ministry of Finance, intimated to the concerned banks that different committees and experts opined that most of the banks have 25% surplus manpower. It was observed : "While there is a need for inducting new workforce, which had adequate knowledge of new skills such as modern technology, foreign exchange, venture capital, e-commerce, money management, etc. it is also essential to rationalize the existing manpower. In doing so, it has to be ensured that there should be adequate opportunities for promotions for all and proper balance between promoted and direct recruit officers at entry level. Sufficient promotional opportunities should be created for the entrants in non-executive grades by creating graded sca....
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....lmost identical scheme known as "Employees Voluntary Retirement Scheme". We may, however, observe that the scheme adopted by the State Bank of India (hereinafter referred to 'SBIVRS') in certain respects differ from the scheme of the Nationalised Banks (hereinafter referred to the 'said scheme'). For our purpose, we would consider them separately. The said scheme was applicable in relation to employees who on the date of application had completed 15 years of service or 40 years of age. The employees specified therein including specialised officers were not eligible to seek voluntary retirement. However, in certain scheme they were ordinarily ineligible for being considered. The period during which the said scheme was to remain operative varies from bank to bank. However, as far as Punjab National Bank was concerned, the said scheme was to remain in operation from 1.11.2000 to 30.11.2000. In terms of the said scheme those who sought for voluntary retirement were entitled to ex-gratia payments as specified therein as also other benefits which are as follows :- "AMOUNT OF EX-GRATIA An employee seeking voluntary retirement under the scheme will be entit....
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.... for re-employment in the bank or any of its subsidiaries. 10.13. The benefits payable under this scheme shall be in full and final settlement of all claims of whatsoever nature, whether arising under the scheme or otherwise to the employee (or to his nominee in case of death). An employee who voluntarily retired under this scheme will not have any claim against the bank of whatsoever nature and no demand or dispute or difference will be raised by him or on his behalf, whether for re-employment or compensation or back wages including employment of any of his relative on compassionate grounds in the service of the bank or for any other benefit whatsoever. 10.14. The vacancy caused by voluntary retirement shall not be filled up by new recruitment. 10.15. The ex-gratia payable to an employee on opting for Voluntary Retirement under this scheme would be paid to him within 45 days from the date of his relieving. PROCEDURE An employee eligible to seek voluntary retirement under this scheme should make a request on the prescribed application enclosed with this scheme as Annexure-A or Annexure A-1 as the case may be through proper channel addressed to the Competent Authority before the....
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....rein dated 3.4.2002, inter alia, held :- "That the V.R. Scheme as framed is not a valid piece of subordinate legislation inasmuch as the provision of Section 19 sub clause (1) and sub clause (4) of the Act have not been complied with and has, therefore, to be set aside. Even if it is assumed for the sake of arguments that the scheme is validly framed, it would be open to an employee to withdraw his option before the same has been accepted and effectively enforced. For the reasons recorded above, we allow 71 writ petitions i.e C.W.P. Nos.1458, 1472 of 2001 and C.W.P Nos. 303 and 1765 of 2002 etc. etc. in which the petitioners have made a prayer for the withdrawal of their options and the impugned orders accepting the options of voluntary retirement stand quashed. All these petitioners shall be reinstated in service with all consequential benefits. It is however, made clear that those petitioners who have received the benefits under the scheme including the ex-gratia payment whether with or without protest, shall return the entire amount received by them with interest at the rate of 9% per annum from the date of the receipt of the said amount till the date of return. On retur....
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....t view of the matter the contractual bar contained therein cannot be held to be bad in law. The learned Attorney General would urge that the High Court proceeded on a wrong premise insofar as it failed to take into consideration that the scheme would amount to a regulation which would attract the provision of Section 19 of 1970 Act. It was submitted that power to fix the terms and conditions of service of their employees by the Banks is provided for under Section 7 of the said Act. The learned counsel would contend that it is not the case of the writ petitioner-respondents that the aforementioned clause 10.5 is arbitrary or otherwise opposed to public policy or suffers from lack of mutuality and, thus, the High Court must be held to have arrived at a wrong conclusion. Such a clause being an offer, the learned Attorney General would contend, is not violative of any provisions of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 or the Constitution of India. Taking us through the decisions of this Court in Gopal Chandra Misra (supra), T. Parthasarthy (supra), Balram Gupta (supra) as also Shambhu Murari Sinha (supra), the learned Attorney General would urge that therein this Court has laid down that such....
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....down sizing of the employees, the same was required to be considered having regard to the age profile, skill profile, the extent of the response received from the employees and several other relevant factors. In the aforementioned situation, the learned counsel would submit that clause 10.5 was inserted so that in the event, those who had opted for the scheme resile therefrom, the banks may not face practical difficulties. The requirement of the bank, the learned counsel would submit, must prevail over the requirement of the individual employees. As regards the validity of clause 10.5, the learned counsel would submit that the same was at the threshold stage leading to a major contract. Strong reliance, in this connection, has been placed Anson's Law of Contract, 28th Edition, paras 235 and Chitty on Contracts, 28th Edition (1999) pages 3 -160 and 3-161 and Halsbury's Laws of England, 4th Edition, Volume 9, para 235 at page 106. Mr. Mukul Rohtagi appearing on behalf of the Bank of India would contend that as the writ petitions involved enforcement of contract qua contract, they were not maintainable. The learned counsel placed strong reliance in Har Shankar & Ors. v. The ....
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....ee, it was decided that the employee might be permitted to withdraw the application on or before 15.2.2001. v) It was a time bound scheme whereunder the employee was to be relieved and paid entire monetary benefits by 31.3.2001, for which arrangements were to be made. It has been pointed out that around 35,380 employees had applied under the said scheme and around 1,996 employees had withdrawn before the cut off date. Around 21,000 employees had been granted voluntary retirement under the scheme, excluding the ineligible. It was contended that the scheme if read in its entirety would clearly show that the same was an offer and not an invitation to offer and in terms thereof an enforceable rights and duties had been conferred upon both employer and employee which would, subject to certain exception, be enforceable. It was contended that as the concerned employee did not exercise his option of withdrawal within the specified date, namely, 15.2.2001, his case had been considered on the premise that he has not withdrawn his offer. The learned counsel would contend that a contract of employment can be terminated unilaterally; even a tenure of contract of employment can be curtailed b....
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....be relevant only if the same culminates into an acceptance. The learned counsel would submit that mere declaration given by an offerer that he would not withdraw or cancel the offer would not destroy his locus. Strongly relying upon the decisions of this Court in J.N. Srivastava v. Union of India & Anr. [(1998) 9 SCC 559], Gopal Chandra Misra (supra), Parthasarathy (supra), Shambhu Murari Sinha (supra), Balram Gupta (supra), the learned counsel would submit that even after acceptance, the offer could be withdrawn, such an action on the part of the optioner is permissible even after the acceptance of the offer and in that view of the matter the application of contractual bar must be held to be applicable only in a case where offerer has been relieved from his part not prior thereto. The decisions of this Court, Mr. Suramanium would submit, lay down the following principles : (1) Juridical relationship of employer and employee continues till the employee is relieved from his duties (2) It is a bilateral action, (3) Offer being not in prasenti its acceptance is necessary, (4) only exception to the said rule would be where prejudice may be caused. Mr. Subramanium would urge that in t....
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.... enforceable. According to the learned counsel, the terms and conditions of service of employees being governed by a statute or statutory regulations, they enjoy a status. It was urged that as such voluntary retirement scheme affects the status of an employee, a contractual bar cannot be imposed. Reliance, in this connection, has been placed on Delhi Transport Corporation v. D.T.C. Mazdoor Congress & Ors. [(1991) Supp.(1) SCC 600]. In a case, Mr. Dwivedi would urge when the employee has voluntarily withdrawn the offer, the doctrine of election will have no application as by reason thereof the employee has not received the benefit in one part of the contract and then questioned the rest thereof. Mr. Jagdeep Dhankar would, inter alia, submit that in some cases the letters of withdrawal reached before the option. In any event, as the orders had been passed in many cases on 8.1.2001 i.e. well after the expiry of the period of the scheme, namely, 31.1.2.2000, the competent authority had no jurisdiction to accept the same. Mr. Panda appearing for the Appellant in Civil Appeal No.955 of 2002 would draw the attention of this Court to the fact of the matter and submitted that the concerne....
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....nd that as the scheme is ultra vires, no relief can be granted in their favour. The learned counsel contended, that as the scheme is contractual in nature, the benefits which were otherwise available to them in terms of the scheme could not have been curtailed. Before we advert to the rival contentions, we may take note of the relevant provisions of 1970 Act. Sections 7(2), 19(1), 19(2)(f) and 19(4) of 1970 Act read as follows :- "7(2) The general superintendence, direction and management of the affairs and business of a corresponding new bank shall vest in a Board of Directors which shall be entitled to exercise all such powers and do all such acts and things as the corresponding new bank is authorised to exercise and do." "19. Power to make regulations. - (1) The Board of Directors of a corresponding new bank may, after consultation with the Reserve Bank and with the previous sanction of the Central Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, make regulations, not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act or any scheme made thereunder, to provide for all matters for which provision is expedient for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of th....
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....dia he has resumed charge of the post in India and has served for a period of not less than one year; 3) Provided further that this sub-regulation shall not apply to an employee who seeks retirement from service for being absorbed permanently in an autonomous body or a public sector undertaking or company or institution or body, whether incorporated or not to which he is on deputation at the time of seeking voluntary retirement; Provided that this sub-regulation shall not apply to an employee who is deemed to have retired in accordance with clause (1) of regulation 2. 4) An employee, who has elected to retire under this regulation and has given necessary notice to that effect to the appointing authority, shall be precluded from withdrawing his notice except with the specific approval of such authority;" It is not in dispute that on or about 23.12.2000 a proviso to Regulation 28 was sought to be introduced, which is as follows :- "Provided that, pension shall also be granted to an employee who opts to retire before attaining the age of superannuation, but after having served for a minimum period of 15 years in terms of any scheme that may be framed for the purpose by ....
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....evant date. b) Provident Fund contribution as per State Bank of India Employees' Provident Fund Rules as on relevant date. Pension in terms of State Bank of India Employees' Pension Fund Rules on the relevant date (including commuted value of pension). c) Encashment of balance of Privilege Leave, as applicable, on the relevant date. d) Respective facilities extended to officers/others such as retention of accommodation, telephone, car, continuation of housing loan etc. will be extended to officers/others retiring under SBIVRS as per present dispensation, at the discretion of Competent Authority. However, in such cases of retention of physical facilities, 50% of the amount of ex-gratia payable will be released only after the employee surrenders the facility. No interest, however, will be paid for the amount so withheld. All other outstanding loans/advances will have to be repaid before date of retirement under SBI VRS, failing which the amount of ex-gratia and other terminal benefits payable to the employee will be appropriated towards the outstanding loans/advances and the balance amount only will be payable to the employee. 7. Other features : The Bank intends to cont....
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....ice rules, awards or under the applicable Standing Orders/Law/Rules/terms and conditions of service as may be applicable to the employee concerned. vii. The SBIVRS shall not be construed as a revision of any of the previous retirement schemes of the Bank and as such no claim from the employee who has retired/will be retiring under the existing schemes shall be entertained. viii. In case of disputes as to the interpretation of any of the terms and conditions of the scheme, the decision of the Bank shall be final and binding on all the parties concerned. ix. Bank reserves the right to modify, amend or cancel any or all of the aforesaid clauses and to give effect thereto from any dates it may deem fit. Pursuant to in furtherance of the powers conferred under Section 50(3), the Reserve Bank of India with the previous sanction of the Central Government made the State Bank of India General Regulations, 1955. It is also not in dispute that in exercise of the power conferred under Section 43(1) of the State Bank of India Act, 1955 the Central Board of the State Bank of India made the State Bank of India Officers Service Rules determining the terms and conditions of the appointment and s....
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....far as the employees of the nationalized banks are concerned except for the matter of grant of pension which is covered by the regulations framed in terms of Section 19 of the 1970 Act, other terms and conditions of their service are not statutory in nature. But the State Bank of India as also the nationalized banks are 'States' within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India. The services of the workman are also governed by several standing orders and bipartite settlements which have the force of law. The banks, therefore, cannot take recourse to 'hire & fire' for the purpose of terminating the services of the employees. The banks are required to act fairly and strictly in terms of the norms laid down therefor. Their actions in this behalf must satisfy the test of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India. Having regard to the intendment of the scheme each and every employee would not be entitled to the benefit of the said scheme. Those who are facing disciplinary proceedings or working in a particular class of employment are not eligible therefor. An offer indisputably can be made to a group of persons collectively which is capable of being ac....
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....r tenders for the supply of goods or for the execution of works is, generally, not an offer, even though the preparation of the tender may involve very considerable expense. The offer comes from the person who submits the tender and there is no contract until the person asking for the tenders accepts one of them. These rules, may, however, be excluded by evidence of contrary intention: e.g. where the person who invites the tenders states in the invitation that he binds himself to accept the highest offer to buy (or as the case may be, the lowest offer to sell or to provide the specified services). In such cases, the invitation for tenders may be regarded either as itself an offer or as an invitation to submit offers coupled with an undertaking to accept the highest (or, as the case may be, the lowest) offer; and the contract is concluded as soon as the highest offer to buy (or lowest offer to sell, etc.) is communicated." In Treitel's 'The Law of Contract, it has been stated thus: "When parties negotiate with a view to making a contract, many preliminary communications may pass between them before a definite offer is made. One party may simply respond to a reque....
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....ms either certain or capable of being rendered contain. An offer may be made to an individual or to a group of persons or to the world at large. It may be made expressly by words, or it may be implied from the product of the offerer." The request of employees seeking voluntary retirement was not to take effect until and unless it was accepted in writing by the competent authority. The Competent Authority had the absolute discretion whether to accept or reject the request of the employee seeking voluntary retirement under the scheme. A procedure has been laid down for considering the provisions of the said scheme to the effect that an employee who intends to seek voluntary retirement would submit duly completed application in duplicate in the prescribed form marked "offer to seek voluntary retirement" and the application so received would be considered by the competent authority on first come first serve basis. The procedure laid down therefor suggests that the applications of the employee would be an offer which could be considered by the bank in terms of the procedure laid down therefor. There is no assurance that such an application would be accepted without any ....
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.... the assent of the other to such act or abstinence (See Section 2(a)). Herein the banks by reason of the scheme or otherwise have not expressed their willingness to do or abstain from doing anything with a view to obtaining assent of the employees to such act. It will bear repetition to state that not only the power of the bank to accept or reject such application is absolutely discretionary, it, as noticed herein before, could also amend or rescind the scheme. The Scheme, therefore, cannot be said to be an offer which, on the acceptance by the employee, would fructify in a concluded contract. The proposal of the employee when accepted by the Bank would constitute a promise within the meaning of Section 2(b) of the Act. Only then the promise becomes an enforceable contract. In the instant case the banks when floating the scheme did not signify that on the employees assenting thereto a concluded contract would come into being in terms whereof they would be permitted to retire voluntarily and get the benefits thereunder. Furthermore, in terms of the said scheme no consideration passed so as to constitute an agreement. Once it is found that by giving their option under the scheme, t....
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....gal obligation exists. Nor, as the law stands, is it relevant that the offeror has declared himself ready to keep the offer open for a given period. Such an intimation is but part and parcel of the original offer, which must stand or fall as a whole. The offeror may, of course, bind himself, by a separate and specific contract, to keep the offer opn; but the offeree, if such is his allegation, must provide all the elements of a valid contract, including assent and consideration. In Routledge v Grant the defendant offered on 18 March to buy the plaintiff's house for a certain sum, 'a definite answer to be given within six weeks from the date'. Best CJ held that the defendant could withdraw at any moment before acceptance, even though the time limit had not expired. The plaintiff could only have held the defendant to his offer throughout the period, if he had bought the option by a separate and binding contract." This principle, as noticed herein before, has been accepted in a large number of decisions relied upon by Mr. Nageshwar Rao and Mr. Dwivedi (supra). We may, however, only refer to Devi Krishan Goyal (supra). The relevant rule, interpretation whereof fell f....
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....rs: It will be noted that in Offord v. Davies, discussed above, the mere fact that the defendants promised to guarantee payment for 12 months did not preclude that from revoking before that period had elapsed. It is a rule of English law that a promise to keep an offer open needs consideration to make it binding and would thus only become so if the offeror gets some benefit, or the offeree incurs some detriment, in respect of the promise to keep the offer open. The offeree in such a case is said to 'purchase an option'; that is, the offeror, in consideration usually of a money payment, sometimes nominal, makes a separate contract not to revoke the offer during a stated period. The position is similar where the offeree expressly or impliedly promises to do or refrain from doing something in exchange for the offeror's promise not to revoke the offer. For example, the offeree may promise not to negotiate with anyone else for a fixed period. Again, a building tendering for a construction contract may have invited quotations for a fixed period (i.e. firm offers) from electricity or carpentry sub- contractors and expressly or impliedly promised to use the figures contained in....
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....ot appear that the purchaser made any promise to exchange contracts within two weeks. It seems more plausible to say that the vendor's promise had become binding as a unilateral contract under which the purchaser had provided consideration by actually making efforts to meet the deadline, even though he had not promised to do so. Similar reasoning can apply if a seller of land promises to keep an offer open for a month, asking the buyer during that period to make efforts to raise the necessary money. If the buyer makes such efforts (without promising to do so), it is arguable that he has by part performance accepted the seller's offer of a unilateral contract to keep the principal offer open. Similarly, it is possible for a person, to whom a promise not to revoke an offer for the sale of a house has been made, to provide consideration for that promise by incurring the expense of a survey. On the other hand, the equitable principle applied in Hughes v. Metropolitan Ry. and in the High Trees case will not avail the offeree since it only operates defensively and does not create new causes of action where none existed before. Nor does it seem probably that the offeree will be ab....
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.... position being uncertain as the rule can still cause hardship; a legislation limiting the right to withdraw firm offers is desirable. In Anson's Law of Contracts it is stated at page 51: "(a) Revocation of the Offer: The law relating to the revocation of an offer may be summed up in two rules; (1) an offer may be revoked at any time before acceptance, and (2) an offer is made irrevocable by acceptance. (i) Revocable before acceptance: The first of these rules may be illustrated by the case of Offord v. Davies: D made a written offer to O that, if he would discount bills for another firm, they (D) would guarantee the payment of such bills to the extent of Pound 600 during a period of twelve calendar months. Some bills were discounted by O, and duly paid, but before the twelve months had expired D, the guarantors, revoked their offer and notified O that they would guarantee no more bills. O continued to discount bills, some of which were not paid, and then sued D on the guarantee. It was held that the revocation was a good defence to the action. The alleged guarantee was an offer, for a period of 12 months, of promises for acts, of guarantees for discounts. Each discou....
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....applications after 15th February. The scheme floated by the State Bank of India contained a clause (clause 7) laying down the mode and manner in which the application for voluntary retirement shall be considered. The relevant clause as referred to herein before creates an enforceable right. In the event the State Bank failed to adhere to its preferred policy, the same could have been specifically enforced by a court of law. The same would, therefore, amount to some consideration. Furthermore in the case of State Bank of India, the Punjab and Haryana High Court failed to take into consideration the provisions of the State Bank of India Act, 1955 It further failed to take into consideration that the matter relating to grant of pension was not covered by any statutory regulation. We are, however, not prepared to accept the submission of Mr. Salve to the effect that by reason of the said scheme, merely the tenure of service has been curtailed to some extent which is permissible in law. Mr. Harish Salve in support of its contention has relied upon para 37-115 from Chitty on Contracts. The said paragraph itself shows that for bringing into a change in the tenure of contract, the exis....
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.... permission, to change his mind subsequently and ask for cancellation of the permission thus obtained; but, he can be allowed to do so as long as he continues in service and not after it has terminated." Yet again in Raj Kumar v. Union of India [(1968) 3 SCR 857] it was held: "When a public servant has invited by his letter of resignation determination of his employment, his services normally stand terminated from the date on which the letter of resignation is accepted by the appropriate authority, and in the absence of any law or rule governing the conditions of his service to the contrary, it will not be open to the public servant to withdraw his resignation after it is accepted by the appropriate authority. Till the resignation is accepted by the appropriate authority in consonance with the rules governing the acceptance, the public servant concerned has locus poenitentiae but not thereafter". In Balram Gupta's case this court was dealing with Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 which is a statutory rule. Sub-rule (4) of Rule 48-A prevented withdrawal of resignation letter except with the approval of the authority. The validity of the said rule was....
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....inistration, administration should be graceful enough to respond and acknowledge the flexibility of human mind and attitude and allow the appellant to withdraw his letter of retirement in the facts and circumstances of this case". In P.K. Mittal's case (supra), a question arose as to whether in contravention of Rule 20 of the Punjab National Bank (Officers) Service Rules, 1979, the bank can reduce the notice period. Ranganathan, J. speaking for the bench held that the same could not have been done and the concerned employee was entitled to withdraw his resignation before it became effective. In Power Finance Corporation Ltd. v. Pramod Kumar Bhatia [(1997) 4 SCC 280] a scheme of voluntary retirement was floated and pursuant thereto the Respondents therein had applied for voluntary retirement but subsequently the Corporation had withdrawn the scheme although the offer had been accepted. Such acceptance was to take effect from 31-12-1994. This court held that the acceptance of his offer to voluntarily retire being subject to adjustment of the amount payable to him, the same did not attain finality. It was held: "It is now settled legal position that unless the employe....
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....he Respondent was aware and having given a certificate at the time of submission of application for premature retirement that he was aware of the fact that his request for withdrawal or cancellation subsequently would not be accepted, the impugned judgment of the High Court was erroneous but rejecting the same this court held : "We have carefully considered the submissions of the learned counsel appearing on either side. The reliance placed for the appellants on the decision reported in Raj Kumar Case is in appropriate to the facts of this case. In that case this Court merely emphasized the position that when a public servant has invited by his letter of resignation determination of his employment his service clearly stands terminated from the date on which the letter of resignation is accepted by the appropriate authority and in the absence of any law or rule governing the condition of the service to the contrary, it will not be open to the public servant to withdraw his resignation after it is accepted by the appropriate authority and that till the resignation is accepted by the appropriate authority in consonance with the rules governing the acceptance, the public servant ....
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....he decisions of this Court, as referred to herein before, shall apply to the facts of the present case also. However, it is accepted that a group of employees accepted the ex gratia payment. Those who accepted the ex gratia payment or any other benefit under the scheme, in our considered opinion, could not have resiled therefrom. The Scheme is contractual in nature. The contractual right derived by the concerned employees, therefore, could be waived. The employees concerned having accepted a part of the benefit could not be permitted to approbate and reprobate nor can they be permitted to resile from their earlier stand. In Lachoo Mal's case (supra) the law is stated in following terms: "The general principle is that every one has a right to waive and to agree to waive the advantage of a law or rule made solely for the benefit and protection of the individual in his private capacity which may be dispensed with without infringing any public right or public policy. Thus the maxim which sanctions the non-observance of the statutory provision is cuilibet licet renuntiare juri pro se introducto. (See Maxwell on Interpretation of Statutes, Eleventh Edition, pages 375 and 376....
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....el has arisen. The principle that a person may not approbate and reprobate express two propositions: (1) That the person in question, having a choice between two courses of conduct is to be treated as having made an election from which he cannot resile. (2) That he will be regarded, in general at any rate, as having so elected unless he has taken a benefit under or arising out of the course of conduct, which he has first pursued and with which his subsequent conduct is inconsistent." In American Jurisprudence, 2nd Edition, Volume 28, 1966, Page 677-680 it is stated: "Estoppel by the acceptance of benefits: Estoppel is frequently based upon the acceptance and retention, by one having knowledge or notice of the facts, of benefits from a transaction, contract, instrument, regulation which he might have rejected or contested. This doctrine is obviously a branch of the rule against assuming inconsistent positions. As a general principle, one who knowingly accepts the benefits of a contract or conveyance is estopped to deny the validity or binding effect on him of such contract or conveyance. This rule has to be applied to do equity and must not be applied in such a manne....
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....mandatory. In Jan Mohammad's case (supra), the law is stated in following terms: "Finally, the validity of the rules framed under the Bombay Act 22 of the 1939 was canvassed. By s.26(1) of the Bombay Act the State Government was authorised to make rules for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the Act. It was provided by sub- s. (5) that the rules made under s.26 shall be laid before each of the Houses of the Provincial Legislature at the session thereof next following and shall be liable to be modified or rescinded by a resolution in which both Houses concur and such rules shall, after notification in the Official Gazette, be deemed to have been modified or rescinded accordingly. It was argued by the petitioner that the rules framed under the Bombay Act, 22 of 1939 were not placed before the Legislative Assembly or the Legislative Council at the first session and therefore they had no legal validity. The rules under Act 22 of 1939 were framed by the Provincial Government of Bombay in 1941. At that time there was no Legislature in session, the Legislature having been suspended during the emergency arising out of World War II. The session of the Bombay Legislativ....