Why Campus Hiring Continues in Banks Despite Court Verdict Against It ?

On April 1, a division bench of the Bombay HC, comprising justices A M Khanvilkar and Mrudula Bhatkar, had held as illegal the Central Bank of India's practice of offering jobs on the basis of campus interviews. The HC had observed that bank's recruitment policy, which allows campus recruitment\interview method for appointment of officers against permanent vacancies on regular basis, was illegal and unconstitutional.It had directed the bank to forbear from making any appointments against permanent vacancies on regular basis through campus recruitment\interview mechanism in the future. Further, the HC had made it clear that all such appointments against permanent vacancies would be non-binding and bad in law.

"We hold that in the matter of public employment, as per constitutional scheme, the mandate is to invite applications from all eligible persons by giving wide publicity, without exception. The fact that other state instrumentalities have resorted to campus interview mode of appointment in the past can be no basis to legitimize that process which inevitably tramples the fundamental rights of otherwise qualified and eligible citizens to be considered for the public posts along with similarly placed persons," Justice Khanvilkar had remarked.

The HC had pointed out that the argument of liberalization, autonomy or competition with private sector, tapping of candidates from specialized field or better qualified candidates through campus recruitment could be no basis to uphold the impugned action of the bank. In fact, in several cases, the SC had held that in matter of public employment, it should be done only by inviting applications from the public at large by giving wide publicity and issuing public advertisements. The HC had refused to accept the bank's contention that candidates selected through campus interviews were class apart and utilizing their expertise could help compete and match the performance of private and foreign banks.

The original petition before the HC was filed by a section of post-graduate management students, challenging the bank's recruitment policy.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/SC-trashes-Central-Bank-plea-against-HC-ruling/articleshow/22040240.cms

The Great Indian Folly of Campus Recruitment--------Despite Adverse court verdict, many banks are still in process of campus recruitment in higher scales.( Court verdict against Central Bank of India is given in link given below )

 They neither follow guidelines issued from Ministry of Finance nor respect Court Order and always try to give wrong excuses for their wrong actions. Until guilty persons are punished for their past actions, one cannot dream of any reformation for future.

People sitting at top posts in banks or in the government use their art of presentation to commit fraud and perpetuate their corrupt practice.They never want to to punish evil persons.

Scam after scam takes place but government always promises to make new laws and never tries to enforce existing laws.

This has been seen during last 65 years of freedom. One after other committees are formed to conceal their misdeeds and to exonerate corrupt leaders. Even reports of such committees are not cared if the finding goes against them or their bosses.Only a few honest and devoted officers are made scapegoat if the media or some persons come forward with exposure in naked form.

Clever government has framed several laws against social evils like dowry, rape, corruption, extortion, terrorism etc but could not stop its rise day after day and year after year. This is only because their tendency to protect the guilty.They make act but do not ensure action on the act .

Until birds of same feather occupy the powerful posts once cannot imagine of any change. Person like Arvind Kejriwal can only dream of change because he has a vision for execution matching his ideas.

After all, what is justification for campus recruitment in higher scales in banks even after having hundreds and thousands of senior, experiences, skilled, honest, tested and attested officers in bank and waiting for promotion?

 

Banks are service oriented industry where experience is more valuable than educational degrees or good looking personalities. Best marketing officers can bring new businesses for their banks, but only able and experienced officers can sustain them. 

Quality of service is more important in banks than the degrees of serving employees. Once a person joins a bank, his educational qualification becomes insignificant. His ability to judge a loan seeker and comfort of depositors can only help in increasing business of a bank.

 

Officers who do not have credit processing skills or who have not developed enough experience are made Branch head. This culture has resulted in bad lending and hence rises in bad assets. Quick mortality of assets in banks has gone beyond  control of bank management only because unskilled MBA graduates are sitting at top posts and seniors are working as subordinates in such branches. This mismatch has adversely affected the work culture in almost all banks which have resorted to campus hiring giving false excuses to Ministry of Finance or to give favour to kith and kin of powerful ministers.

 

It is therefore need of the hour to assess and ascertain the pros and cons of practice of campus hiring and punish CMDs of those banks who introduced this culture for their self interest and caused irreparable damage to banks.

Work culture is more important than any other thing for survival of banks. Officers who understand the value of money, intricacies of character of bank customers , principles of lending , importance of KYC norms, significance of RBI prudential norms for income recognition and asset classification creditworthiness of loan seekers and overall comfort level of their customers can only ensure safety and security of banks for future.

 

In response to court verdict against Central bank and its clear warning to bank not to repeat such campus hiring, Government of India should order CBI inquiry into all recruitment which took place during last ten years in public sector banks through campus hiring and whether those officers are really better than already working officers in banks and whether there was any corrupt dealing in such type of recruitment.

It is necessary to first identify the disease, find out the root cause of sickness and then treat the sickness in such a way that the sickness is cured for good and ever.Until the germs of disease lie in the body , one cannot expect quick and permanent recovery from sickness.It is praiseworthy that now banks have at least started accepting bad assets as bad assets and this is why banks have taken recovery steps to some extent.

Banks and the government have to first learn to say spade a spade.