Chief Minister has no right to ban the recruitment process of cooperative bank: High Court

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has set aside Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s decision to stay the recruitment process of the Chandrapur District Central Co-operative Bank. The court has said that the Chief Minister has no authority to review or modify the decision made by the minister concerned. A division bench of Justice Vinay Joshi and Justice Valmiki S A Menezes, in its order passed on March 3, said Shinde’s decision was “wholly unwarranted and outside its jurisdiction”.

The court pronounced the verdict on a petition filed by the cooperative bank and a businessman named Santosh Singh Rawat. Santosh Singh Rawat was elected chairman of the bank, opposing Shinde’s decision. According to the petition, the chief minister passed the order at the behest of local leaders. The court said that the Chief Minister has no authority to review or amend the decision taken by the minister in-charge under the “Working Rules and Instructions”. Chief Minister Shinde had banned the recruitment process of cooperative bank in November 2022.