The act of a workman of the State Bank of India (SBI) of having displayed a portrait of B.R. Ambedkar in a bank without obtaining permission from higher authorities does not call for the extreme punishment of removal from service, the Madras High Court has said.
A Bench of Justices M. Duraiswamy and J. Sathya Narayana Prasad set aside a 2014 order of a single judge, who had interfered with a 2012 directive of an industrial tribunal to reinstate the workman, M. Gowrishankar, in service with continuity of service, but without back wages.
The Bench said the denial of back wages was enough punishment for the workman, who had been found guilty of only a minor misconduct in the departmental inquiry. It directed the bank to pay all attendant benefits, except back wages, to the workman within three months.
