The Patna High Court has ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to reinstate an officer who was treated as having voluntarily resigned after he remained absent from work due to illness. The court said SBI did not properly consider his medical condition and documents or give him a fair opportunity to explain why he was absent.
Justice Harish Kumar heard the case filed by Pankaj Kumar Singh, an SBI officer who had served the bank for more than 30 years. The court observed that an employee cannot be treated like a “slave” and that the bank must follow a fair process before taking such a serious decision against an employee
Officer Joined SBI in 1989
Pankaj Kumar Singh joined SBI in November 1989 as a clerk-cum-cashier at the Gandhi Maidan branch in Patna. He was promoted to Assistant Manager in 2006 and later to Deputy Manager in 2011. In June 2019, he was transferred to the Muzaffarpur Zone.
The dispute arose out of the petitioner’s transfer while he was posted at the Digha Branch of the SBI, Patna. The petitioner had applied for an inter-zone transfer from Patna Zone to Muzaffarpur Zone on 11.03.2019 in terms of the prevailing transfer policy of the Bank.
hereafter, the petitioner was served with a letter bearing No. HR/MK 544 dated 28.06.2019, issued by the Chief Manager (HR) Muzaffarpur, who, at the relevant point of time, was posted at the disposal of RBO, Bettiah.
Around that time, he was diagnosed with acute jaundice and was advised to take complete rest for at least 45 days. He applied for leave and claimed that his leave from July 1 to July 31, 2019, was approved through the bank’s HRMS portal.
While he was on bed rest, he developed severe pain in his legs and was admitted to a private clinic on October 17, 2019. He remained under treatment and was advised complete rest until December.
SBI Treated His Absence as Unauthorised
Singh remained on medical rest until December 13, 2019. After doctors declared him fit, he reported for duty on December 16.
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