The Patna High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) with caution to the petitioners not to burden the Constitutional Court with worthless petitions resulting in abuse of the process of the Court.
The PIL opposed the shifting of the Bank Branch, Kiratpur Rajaram, Vaishali to Bhagwanpur, Vaishali Branch, as the shifting of the Bank would cause great hardship to the local people.
The petitioners averred that the Bank established its Branch in the campus of Vishun Roy, College, Kiratpur, Vaishali, way back in the year 2012, after getting approval from its Headquarter and there are large number of Colleges, Secondary Schools, Higher Secondary Schools and other institutions, which are getting benefit(s) of having Branch of the Bank in the vicinity, thus shifting of the Branch will cause great hardship.
After having gone through the averments, the Division Bench of Chief Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice Harish Kumar finds that the petition is nothing but a sheer misuse of Public Interest Litigation.
The Court observed that the Public Interest Litigation is entertained only when larger public interest is involved and the matter is so grave and urgent that it must take precedence over other matters or there is, in fact, a genuine public interest involved. However, there is no element of public interest involved in the petition.
“Shifting of the Branch of a Bank is a policy decision of the institution and the Court in exercise of the power under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, should refrain itself from entertaining such petitions. There are very many factors controlling such decisions like the customer foot-falls, pruning of staff strength, financial viability of having multiple branches juxtaposed with the number of transactions etc. These are best left to the management of the Branch and no customer can demand one way or the other.”
The Court noted that the physical foot-falls in Bank Branches have decreased considerably because of the prevalence of on-line transactions.