The Apex Court on 22.04.2019, in NARESH CHANDRA BHARDWAJ v BANK OF INDIA & ORS. , had allowed the appeal filed by appellant while converting the punishment of removal from services to compulsory retirement
FACTS OF THE CASE-
The appellant who is a Scale II officer in Bank of India has sanctioned three loans from Lal Bangla Branch and two from Harsh Nagar Branch at Kanpur where he was the part of the recommending authority of the latter, were classified as Non-Performing Assets. When scrutinized various abnormalities were found which caused a loss of Rs. 70.32 lakhs to the Bank. The disciplinary authority has penalized the appellant by “removal from service which shall not be a disqualification for future employment”. The appellant has asked the Court to review the quantum of penalty keeping in view the similar case of Mr. R.K. Mishra and Mr. V.K. Srivastava where they were only punished with compulsory retirement.
ISSUE: Can the punishment be changed to a compulsory retirement based upon the parity with the other two delinquent officers?
DECISION HELD BY THE COURT:
The Apex Court while allowing the appeal and altering the punishment to a compulsory retirement held that it could not figure out any dissimilarity in the conduct of the two officers with that of the appellant that would actually justify the differentiation made in the punishment for the two cases. Further, the respondents have further agreed on granting compassionate allowance to the appellant as per the counter affidavit.
Read full judgment here:
[embeddoc url=”https://www.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2018/16895/16895_2018_Judgement_22-Apr-2019.pdf” download=”all”]
