HC confirms Canara bank’s decision of rejecting pension benefits

CHENNAI: Justice SM Subramaniam of Madras High Court had passed an order upholding the decision of Canara Bank to reject the pension and other retirement benefits of a bank employee who resigned from service.

The judge passed the direction on dismissing a plea by S Gnanasekaran, a former clerk of Canara Bank.

The petitioner who resigned from his job in 2008 made a representation to the bank to provide his pension and retirement benefits as per the rule implemented by the bank applicable for employees who worked from October 21, 1995, to October 27, 2010.

However, the bank rejected it on the ground that the petitioner was not eligible for the pension scheme and the Voluntary Retirement Scheme since he was a Provident Fund optee and not a Pension optee.

Therefore, he approached the HC. Recording the submissions, the judge held that the petitioner is to be treated as a resigned employee.

“The petitioner was considered as a resigned employee and resignation amounts to a forfeiture of his past services. Therefore, the decision taken by the bank in this regard is in consonance with the regulations of the bank and in accordance with the settled principles. Thus, there is no infirmity in respect of the decisions taken by the bank for rejecting the claim of the petitioner, ” the judge held.