SBI Terminated Employee, Court orders Compensation

The Odisha High Court has granted compensation to an employee who was terminated by State Bank of India.

The Workman was appointed as Messenger in State Bank of India, Umerkote Branch with effect from 26th March, 1992 and was discharging his duties. One Smt. Radha Gouduni had a freedom fighter’s account with the Petitioner-Bank at Umerkote Branch. The said branch used to draw the pension of said Smt. Radha Gouduni from the State Government and depositing the same in her SB account, which she used to draw from time to time.

The account became dormant for non-drawal of any amount/nonoperation of the account for a considerable period. When the matter stood thus, on 3rd October, 2000, an amount of Rs.20,000/- was
withdrawn from the said account on presentation of a withdrawal slip bearing a Left Thumb Impression (LTI). At the relevant time, one Sri R.N.Biswas was working as Junior Manager, Sri Koteswar Pattnaik was working as Account Opening Counter Clerk and Sri Mrutunjaya Pattnaik was working as Paying Cashier in the said branch.

On the next day of such withdrawal, it was detected that the account holder, namely, Smt. Radha Gouduni had died long back and Rs.20,000/- was drawn by her grandson. When the incident came to the knowledge of the higher authority, a departmental proceeding was initiated against him on the allegation that the said withdrawal slip of Smt. Radha Gouduni was passed for payment on the approach and request of the Workman and that the Workman presented the withdrawal slip of deceased Radha Gouduni before Sri Koteswar Pattnaik, who was manning the SB account counter on the date of withdrawal and requested to issue a token stating that the depositor was unable to come to the counter because of heavy rush in the Branch and managed withdrawal of money from the account of a deceased person.

However, the Workman recovered the amount from the drawee and deposited the same in the account by the time the departmental proceeding was initiated. One Sri S. Rajarshee, SMGS4 of Damanjodi branch was appointed as Enquiry Officer to conduct the departmental enquiry against the Workman and three other officials of Umerkote Branch named above. Enquiry report was submitted holding the Workman guilty of gross misconduct for facilitating the drawal of the amount from the account of a dead person.

Hence, he was imposed with major punishment of removal from Bank’s service in terms of Para-6 (b) of bipartite settlement dated 10th April, 2022. Needless to mention here that before imposing major penalty, the Workman was served with notice against the enquiry report as well as imposition of major penalty.

The Workman filed case in court seeking justice.

Court Order

The court observed that just calling an enquiry valid is not enough — it must also be fair and follow proper procedures. In this case, the employee (Workman) was not given access to important documents, was not allowed to question the witnesses against him, and was also denied the chance to present his own defence, including a key witness — the grandson of the deceased account holder.

The court also noted that there was no strong evidence to prove the Workman was involved in the illegal withdrawal. According to his job responsibilities, he was not in charge of handling withdrawal slips or cash transactions. It was also pointed out that other staff members who actually carried out the withdrawal only received minor punishments, while the Workman was the only one dismissed from service. This raised serious concerns about the fairness and impartiality of the enquiry. It was also highlighted that the Workman had helped recover the withdrawn money.

The court agreed with the Tribunal’s decision and found no legal error in it. However, since the Workman had already reached retirement age, getting his job back (reinstatement) was not possible. So, in the interest of justice, the court changed the Tribunal’s order of reinstatement to a monetary compensation. The court ordered the Management to pay the Workman ₹5,00,000 as a lump sum compensation instead of reinstatement, along with 50% of his back wages, within two months.

Download Court Order