Ten years later: disabled, dismissed and down, but not out

Wadhera was recruited on January 11, 1980 through the SBI’s banking services recruitment exam and posted as a Probationary Officer at SBI associate SBT. His first posting was at Munnar, a hill station in Kerala, where he says he used to put in 14 hours a day and think nothing of working on Sundays. After two years, Wadhera was transferred to SBT’s Link Road branch in Mumbai.

In June 1985, tragedy struck this one-time athlete. He suffered a serious attack of spondylitis. At that time, Wadhera was posted in Patiala. The bank sanctioned him sick leave on June 20 that year, and a fortnight later, he was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylosis/ rheumatoid arthritis. For the next three years, he was bedridden.

During this period, says Wadhera, he kept sending leave applications and medical bills which were duly sanctioned and reimbursed by the bank. But a long and tiring fight was looming large. On January 7, 1987, when even 720 days of extraordinary leave — maximum that a bank can sanction under SBI guidelines during the service period — were exhausted, SBT initiated an inquiry against him, stating that no leave application was forwarded thereafter and that he been absenting himself from duty despite instructions for rejoining.

Wadhera had, meanwhile, been sending mercy petitions and graphic details of his condition to the officials. On January 7, 1988, the SBT, via the State Bank of Patiala, ordered a medical board inquiry at General Hospital Sector 16 for which they asked Wadhera, who could hardly move, to make arrangements, he says. The report confirmed his condition.

Another inquiry was conducted at his residence in Panchkula following which dismissal from service was recommended.

On August 3, 1992, Wadhera was finally sacked. The bank gave him his provident fund dues but gratuity and other compensation were withheld since he was expelled for misconduct and indiscipline and not on medical grounds.

The bank bureaucracy was in full flow before he was discharged. When the disciplinary committee’s recommendation for expulsion was conveyed to him, Wadhera had pleaded for a softer option like posting in his hometown in Chandigarh but the bank replied that it had no branch there.

Of course, ‘‘on humanitarian grounds’’ SBT was willing to transfer him to New Delhi where the nearest branch was. The bank didn’t consider whether such an option was ‘‘humanitarian enough’’ for a person rendered almost invalid.

Wadhera was clutching at straws: he made another suggestion. Could the SBT induct him in the State Bank of Patiala’s (SBP) training college faculty. A faxed reply from SBT Dy General Manager (P&HRD) D Janardhana Prabhu sent to The Indian Express informs that ‘‘the bank explored this possibility but this did not fructify as there was no post of Scale 1 Officer in Staff Training Centre, SBP’’.

Couldn’t the bank grant him an invalid pension? ‘‘At the relevant time, he was not eligible for that benefit’’ says SBT.

A law, enacted three years too late for Wadhera, could have helped him. Section 47 of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection and Full Participation) Act 1995 states that no employer can terminate or reduce in rank or pay the service of an employee who has acquired a disability. Delhi High Court had in a recent case (September 26, 2002) of a DTC bus driver Sadh Ram whose services had been terminated interpreted this section.

The division bench, comprising Justices S B Sinha and Justice A K Sikri, said in such a case the employer would have to provide the employee with alternative employment in the same organisation or in some other organisation. In case no such options were available, the employer

would create a superannuary post for the disabled employee. The post would cease to exist on his or her retirement.

Replying to he Indian Express, the bank chose to ignore questions like what happened to their plans to grant a loan to rehabilitate him. A letter dated October 16, 1993, sent by the General Secretary, Associate Banks’ Officer’s Association, on behalf of the Dy General Manager, SBI, had assured Wadhera that the bank was ‘‘exploring the feasibility’’ of granting such a loan.

R.M. Chigal, Assistant General Manager, State Bank of Patiala, Chandigarh, says that as far as the associate banks are concerned, in case of a mishap, compensation or job to the next-of-kin is provided. ‘‘Now, under a bipartite agreement, an invalid employee cannot be removed from service, rather a softer option is offered to him. Earlier, such options were rare,’’ he says.