THREE BANK ORDINANCE PROVISIONS STAYED

NEW DELHI, July 22 (PTI)—Admitting writ petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Bank Nationalisation Ordinance, the Supreme Court today placed three restraints on the Union of India. The Constitution Bench directed that the Government shall not appoint any board of advisers under the Ordinance, not remove the present Chairmen in each of the 14 nationalised banks and issue no directives contrary to the provisions of the Banking Companies Amendment, 1968. The interim stay was granted by the eight-judge Bench presided over by the Acting Chief Justice. Mr. J.C. Shah, on the application filed by Dr. R.C. Cooper, Director and shareholder of a nationalised bank. Mr. M.R. Masani and Mr. Baira Madhok, who filed the other petition challenging the validity of the Ordinance, were also present. The Bench delivered the order to a jam-packed Court room. There was not even moving space in the Court, an unprecedented event in the Supreme Court’s history.