Chennai: The Madras High Court has observed that the employees of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cannot be referred to as “government servants” while identifying their employment status. The Division Bench, comprising Justice KK Sasidharan and Justice PD Audikesavulu, said: “The fact that the central government has persuasive control over RBI would not make its employees central government employees. It is true that the RBI is a state within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India. Even then it cannot be said that its employees are all regular government employees.”
The observation came after an RBI employee, E Manoj Kumar, had moved the High Court seeking declaration of his result in the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC). While filling up the questionnaire in the application form for Combined Civil Services-I Examination, Kumar had identified himself as a non-government employee in 2016.
The commission withheld his result on the grounds of suppression of material particulars in the application form regarding his employment with the Reserve Bank of India. “Are you a government employee?” was one of the queries in the questionnaire published by the TNPSC. Kumar answered it in the negative. He cleared the written test, and was selected for the appointment to the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police.
However, his appointment met with a road block, and when he moved the court, a single bench at the Madras High Court dismissed his plea citing that the instruction on the application was very clear.
—pti