VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has found fault with the management of a nationalised bank for stopping the post-retirement benefits of its employee against whom a departmental inquiry is pending. The court directed the bank to release all the benefits of the retired employee except Rs 4.42 lakh that he had allegedly misappropriated.
Going into the case, BM Nayak of Narasaraopet in Palnadu district was an employee of the nationalised bank. On March 5, 2019, the bank authorities found that a bag containing gold of a customer was stolen from the locker.
After going through the CCTV camera footage, the bank authorities lodged a complaint with Narasaraopet police. Nayak retired on March 31, 2019, and a departmental inquiry was initiated against him on December 3, 2019. The authorities deposited the post-retirement benefits of Nayak in the bank, and the account was frozen as the police and departmental inquiries are pending against him. All other benefits, except for provisional pension, were stopped by the bank.
In 2022, Nayak filed a petition in the High Court challenging the freezing of his bank account and stoppage of post-retirement benefits. He informed the court that the case was registered against him based on false information and he was not involved in the missing gold.
The court directed the bank to release the post-retirement benefits of Nayak. The bank challenged the single judge’s orders in the case before the division bench. When the matter came up for hearing before the bench of Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice N Jayasurya, the bank’s counsel K Lakshminarasimha informed the court that the bank has the authority to stop the post-retirement benefits till the departmental inquiry is completed. He contended that the employee is only eligible for provisional pension during the period of inquiry.
The bench asked the counsel about the loss incurred by the bank due to the missing gold. When he informed that the loss was Rs 4.42 lakh, the bench directed the bank to release all the post-retirement benefits except Rs 4.42 lakh and also allow Nayak to operate his bank account. The court asked the bank authorities to complete the inquiry within three months. The bank should release the frozen Rs 4.42 lakh if it does not complete the inquiry within three months, it said.