The Supreme Court has agreed to transfer the writ petitions challenging the constitution of an ‘alternative mechanism’ for formulating a scheme of amalgamation between Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank, filed in various High Courts to it.

“The Interim application filed by our organisation has come up for hearing in the Supreme Court of India on March 1 along with other writs also. Upon hearing, the Supreme Court has agreed to transfer all writ petitions together to the Supreme Court, with the directions to all petitioners to file the copies of other original writ petitions before the Supreme Court by March 6, with the respondents to file reply by March 11,” said S Nagarajan, General Secretary, All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA).

While AIBOA had filed the writ petition challenging the amalgamation of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda (BoB) in the Rajasthan High Court, the All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) had filed it in the Delhi High Court.

The petitions of the two officers’ unions said the scheme of amalgamation is unconstitutional for not following the due process and being in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, and also for lacking effective consultation with the Reserve Bank of India.

The alternative mechanism had proposed the amalgamation of BoB, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank to create the second largest public sector bank. The rationale for amalgamation, which is expected to be effective from April 1, is aimed at creating a bank with business scale comparable to global banks and capable of competing effectively in India and globally.

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