BENGALURU: Coming to the rescue of a 62-year-old widow from Vijayanagar, the Karnataka High Court directed Canara Bank to unblock her pension account and recover Rs 2,34,158, the excess amount deposited into the family pension account, from its erring officers. It also directed the bank to take action against its erring officials.
Allowing the petition filed by Nalini Devi, who has been fighting for her pension for the last six years, Justice M Nagaprasanna observed, “We are in a digital age. Excess payment is immediately reflected on the screens of computers through which the amounts are disbursed.
It is only to be noticed by the person operating the computer or the person who decides on transferring the monthly pension. In such a case, neither the hardware nor the software would be responsible, but it is the ‘heartware’, which I mean is the person who handles the account and transfers the amount through the computer.”
The petitioner is the wife of one C Sudhakar who was the Second Division Assistant in the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, CAR (Central), Bengaluru, and served the department for about 22 years and died in 2004. After the death of her husband, the petitioner started getting a pension of Rs 2,430 from her account in the Syndicate Bank, BWSSB Branch at Gandhinagar, which is now merged into Canara Bank.
Her account was blocked in 2016, stating that there was an excess payment of Rs 50,000 to the family pension account. She immediately requested the bank to unblock the account and she offered to pay back the excess amount by way of installments. It was not accepted. Instead, she was made to run pillar to post to get her pension.
After the merger of the bank, she also submitted a representation to the Canara Bank and later to the Reserve Bank of India as well, but nothing came about. The court observed that the officers harassed the petitioner, a senior citizen, who has been asking for the last six years that her pension be set right.