CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has upheld an order of State Bank of India (SBI) denying a job to a successful candidate on the grounds of financial indiscipline and poor CIBIL (Credit Information Bureau India Limited) score.
Justice N Mala recently dismissed the petition filed by the aggrieved candidate, P Karthikeyan, who was appointed to the post of Circle Based Officer (CBO) in 2021, but the appointment order was shortly cancelled.
The judge observed the bank took a “prudent decision” that the candidates with history of default of repayment of loans and adverse CIBIL and other external agencies’ report were ineligible.
The probable rationale behind the criteria may be that in banking business, the employees deal with public money and therefore financial discipline needs to be strictly maintained. Further, there must be efficiency in handling public money and obviously a person with poor or no financial discipline cannot be trusted with public money, the judge said.
The judge rejected the contention of the petitioner that he had repaid the loans and dues before the date of issuance of the appointment order and an NOC was obtained from the lender. The petitioner had applied for the post of CBO as per a notification issued on February 27, 2020.
He cleared the examination and interview held on February 16, 2021, while the appointment order was handed over to him a month later. He had also submitted his CIBIL score and explanation for the adverse CIBIL report. But the respondent bank (SBI) cancelled his appointment.