Banks Must Show Empathy Toward Employees With Medical Ailments; Can't Rigidly Follow Transfer Circulars: Rajasthan High Court

While setting aside transfer of a SBI employee from Jaipur to Hyderabad who was suffering from a medical ailment that resulted in damage to his body, the Rajasthan High Court has held that banks must take a pragmatic approach and show empathy towards their employees. The division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Sangeeta Sharma opined that for postings and transfers, the administrative side need to take into account the medical condition of the employee, especially in case where a person was in service for a while, and was suffering from medical ailments that resulted in damage to his body. The Court was hearing a petition by a bank employee who challenged his transfer from Jaipur to Hyderabad. It was his case that he was suffering from Ischemic Stroke, restricting his body movement, and was dependent on his family for regular supervision and daily life activities. The State submitted that as per a Circular dated May 2, 2023, each circle could have only one Local Head Office and three networks, and each of them would have only one Official Language Officer (“OLO”) at the Local Head Office. After hearing the contentions, the Court perused the circular and highlighted that 3 additional OLOs were posted in other circles falling under linguistic regions. Further, it was noticed that even in New Delhi Circle, an additional Office was allowed to be posted. It was held that the Circular did not mandate only one OLO in that Network, and for various needs more than one OLOs could be posted in various circles. In this background, it was observed that,“…the Bank Authorities seem to be rigid in following the Circular which itself allows more than one OLO to be posted in various circumstances. Although, the Circular does not mention about circumstances relating to medical ailment, however, we are of this opinion that such Circulars would not have a mandatory character to the extent of not allowing an official to continue to perform the duties in a circle.”Accordingly, the transfer order was set aside and the appellant was allowed to continue. The Court directed SBI to pass appropriate orders in one of the networks at Jaipur. Title: Neeraj Sharma v State Bank of India Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 97Click Here To Read/Download Order

Banks Must Show Empathy Toward Employees With Medical Ailments; Can't Rigidly Follow Transfer Circulars: Rajasthan High Court

Nupur Agrawal

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