circumstances of the case and the relevant law. On perusal of the permeable of the Assam Gramin Vikash Bank (Officers and Employees) Service Regulations, 2010, I find that the regulation is a child of Regional Rural Banks Act, 1976 which is a Statutory Act, therefore, as per the settled principle of law the provisions of the regulation shall have the force of statutory law. Secondly, the Regional Rural Banks Act, 1976 and the Regulation of 2010 are Acts and regulations specially enacted and made respectively for smooth running of the Regional Banks and for controlling and regulating the service conditions of their employees. Therefore, they are special enactments and regulations and their applications are confined only to the Regional Banks and their employees. On the other hand, on careful perusal of the permeable of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 it is quite clear that the same was enacted to provide for a scheme for payment of gratuity to employees engaged in factories, mines, oilfields, plantations, ports, railway companies, shops or other establishments and matter connected therewith or incidental thereto. Therefore, the object and ambit of the Act is to provide and to ensure that gratuity is paid to employees of all the establishments mentioned above. As such, it is a general Act. It is settled principle of law that when there is a conflict between the provision of a special Act and provision of general Act in regard to their applicability towards a certain group of people specially covered by the special Act, it is the provisions of the special Act which shall have the overriding effect over the provisions of the general Act. On this the learned counsel for the respondents had cited the relevant judgment passed by a Division Bench of this High Court and the same have been reproduced herein above.
