Court orders PNB to provide promotion to Disabled Officer and give posting near to Family

In a landmark judgement, the Calcutta High Court has directed Punjab National Bank (PNB) to give promotion to a bank official with a 70 percent disability. Earlier, the Court had also directed Punjab National Bank (PNB) to pay ₹3 lakh as compensation to the Officer.

The Court strongly criticized Punjab National Bank (PNB) for not supporting Anirban Pal’s disability needs and for ignoring the orders of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities. The Court has directed that action be taken against the officials responsible. It also ordered that all officials of public sector banks should be trained and made aware of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, as well as the bank’s own special rules for employees with disabilities.

The Calcutta High Court has given relief to a physically disabled officer working in Punjab National Bank, whose promotion had been delayed for almost five years. The Court has directed PNB to grant him promotion within 45 days and also post him in Kolkata, where he has family support to take care of him.

The division bench of Justices Sujoy Paul and Smita Das De passed the order on August 14. Anirban Pal joined Punjab National Bank in 2005. In 2015, he suffered an accident that left him with 70% disability.

In 2016, he skipped the promotion process fearing a transfer away from Kolkata, where he needed family support. However, when he noticed that two other colleagues with disabilities were promoted without being transferred, he too applied for promotion. In October 2018, he was promoted from Scale-III to Scale-IV, but was transferred to Patna. He requested to stay in Kolkata as he was disabled and would face difficulties in living alone in Patna.

Despite availability of vacant posts in Kolkata, his request was not accepted. Instead, when he sought reversion to his old post, the bank accepted his request, making it clear that the decision was irrevocable and would debar him from promotions for two years.

In 2020, when he asked for restoration of his promotion, the bank rejected his request. Pal then moved the High Court. Initially, a single judge dismissed his plea on grounds of delay of three years and even imposed a Rs 3 lakh cost on him.

However, Pal’s counsel, Srijib Chakraborty, argued that the delay should not be counted because of the Covid-19 period (March 15, 2020 to Feb 28, 2022), during which the Supreme Court had extended limitation deadlines.

The division bench accepted this reasoning and set aside the earlier order. It strongly observed that Pal had a preferential right to be posted in Kolkata under government policy, but the bank failed to follow the guidelines without giving any valid reason.

Court’s final direction

The High Court directed the bank to:

• Grant Anirban Pal his promotion within 45 days.
• Post him in Kolkata so that he can perform his duties with family support.
• Fix his seniority and pay scale according to the promoted post, though he will not get arrears of past salary.