Cuttack: The Orissa high court has quashed Odisha Grameen Bank’s rejection of regularisation claims made by 20 temporary employees and directed the bank to frame a scheme for regularising their services within four months.Justice Biraja Prasanna Satapathy, in a common judgment delivered on Oct 28 on four petitions filed in 2019, said the bank should formulate the scheme in line with one framed by Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikash Bank. The employees’ services should be regularised against the relevant posts or posts of a similar nature, with due regard to seniority.The petitioners were engaged at different times in various branches of the bank as drivers, sweepers, messengers, DTP operators, IT electricians and IT networking and hardware workers. They challenged the bank’s May 27, 2019, order rejecting their claims for regularisation.They relied on a National Industrial Tribunal award dated April 30, 1990, which directed that temporary or part-time sweeper-cum-messengers be regularised from the date of their initial continuance. The tribunal was constituted by the Centre following a Supreme Court direction to examine issues relating to regularisation and pay parity for such workers in regional rural banks.After examining the submissions and the tribunal’s award, the HC also took note of decisions of the high courts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Tripura concerning similar employees.The Odisha Grameen Bank reportedly has 500 branches across the state and the petitioners were engaged on a temporary basis in different branches of the bank at different points of time.