Dismissed¶58

State Bank Retirees Association v. State Bank of India

Karnataka HC18 Feb 2025WA/1033/2024

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

State Bank of India pensioners; life certificate; circular/notification dated 03.06.2011; stoppage of pension; family pensioners; Employees Pension Regulations 1995; Memorandum of Settlement 29.10.1993; arbitrariness; natural justice; pension not a bounty; fraudulent payments; submission through association; any branch; delay condonation 97 days; writ appeal dismissed; Karnataka High Court; H. Nagabhushana Rao 2023 SCC Online Kar 5.

What did the court decide?

Delay of 97 days in filing the appeal condoned (I.A.No.1 of 2024 allowed); no substantive relief to the appellant - writ appeal dismissed. ¶58

State Bank Retirees Association Vs State Bank of India — Karnataka HC (2025) — LawSathi Research

What the court decided

AI extract

Outcome

Delay of 97 days in filing the appeal condoned (I.A.No.1 of 2024 allowed); no substantive relief to the appellant - writ appeal dismissed.

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Issue for consideration

Whether the Bank's circular/notification dated 03.06.2011 requiring pensioners and family pensioners to furnish life certificates annually (failing which pension would be stopped) is arbitrary, unreasonable, or in breach of natural justice/law. +1 more

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Court's answer

The requirement of furnishing life certificates is not arbitrary, unreasonable or in breach of any law; its object is to see that pension is not claimed wrongfully and that frauds and fraudulent payments are arrested, so that genuine pensioners get pension in time.

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Ratio / Principle

The delay of 97 days in filing the writ appeal is condoned and I.A.No.1 of 2024 is allowed.

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Key takeaways

A pensioner can send his life certificate through an association also, and the impugned circular/notification itself permits the life certificate to be given at any branch of the Bank; therefore the appellant-Association will not face any hardship.ratio¶53
The dismissal of the writ petition by the learned Single Judge was eminently proper and legal, and the writ appeal is meritless and dismissed.ratio¶55

Detailed headnote1 paragraphs

Division Bench (N.V. Anjaria, CJ and M.I. Arun, J.), High Court of Karnataka, dismissed Writ Appeal No.1033 of 2024 filed by the State Bank Retirees' Association against the learned Single Judge's order dated 07.03.2024 in WP No.6956/2023, which had dismissed its challenge to the Bank's circular/notification dated 03.06.2011. The circular instructed pensioners and family pensioners to submit life certificates every year in November in the prescribed format, failing which pension would be liable to be stopped two months thereafter; certificates could be submitted at any branch, not necessarily the home branch. Upholding the dismissal, the Court held that the requirement of furnishing life certificates is not arbitrary, unreasonable or in breach of any law, its object being to prevent wrongful claims of pension and to arrest frauds and fraudulent payments so that genuine pensioners receive pension in time; a pensioner may also send the life certificate through an association, and the Association would face no hardship. The learned Single Judge had relied on the coordinate Bench decision in H. Nagabhushana Rao v. Under Secretary FFR Division-WZ Section Ministry of Home Affairs (2023 SCC Online Kar 5). The delay of 97 days in filing the appeal was condoned. Appeal dismissed.

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NC: 2025:KHC:8205-DB WA No. 1033 of 2024

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA AT BENGALURU DATED THIS THE 18^TH DAY OF FEBRUARY, 2025

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PRESENT

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THE HON'BLE MR N. V. ANJARIA, CHIEF JUSTICE AND

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THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE M.I.ARUN WRIT APPEAL NO. 1033 OF 2024 (S-RES)

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BETWEEN:

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STATE BANK RETIREES' ASSOCIATION REPRESENTED BY ITS GENERAL SECRETARY, SRI C.N. PRASAD, S/O. LATE C.R. NARAYAN RAO, R/AT NO.14, NANJUNDESHWARA LAYOUT, 5^TH PHASE, J.P. NAGAR, BENGALURU - 560 078

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…APPELLANT

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(BY SRI. SHIVAPRASAD SHANTANAGOUDAR, ADVOCATE)

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AND:

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Digitally signed by PRABHAKAR SWETHA KRISHNAN

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Location: High Court of Karnataka

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STATE BANK OF INDIA REPRESENTED BY ITS CHAIRMAN, HAVING ITS OFFICE AT

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2, RACE COURSE ROAD, MADHAVA NAGAR, GANDHI NAGAR, BENGALURU - 560 001.

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…RESPONDENT

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(BY SRI. T.P. MUTHANNA, ADVOCATE)

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THIS WRIT APPEAL FILED U/S 4 OF THE KARNATAKA HIGH COURT ACT PRAYING TO SET ASIDE THE ORDER DATED 07.03.2024 IN WP No.6956/2023 PASSED BY THE LEARNED SINGLE JUDGE AND ALLOW THE WRIT PETITION AS PRAYED FOR TO MEET THE ENDS OF JUSTICE AND EQUITY.

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THIS APPEAL, COMING ON FOR PRELIMINARY HEARING, THIS DAY, JUDGMENT WAS DELIVERED THEREIN AS UNDER:

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2 - NC: 2025:KHC:8205-DB WA No. 1033 of 2024

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CORAM: HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. JUSTICE N. V. ANJARIA and

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HON'BLE MR JUSTICE M.I.ARUN

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ORAL ORDER ON I.A.NO.1 OF 2024

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(PER: HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. JUSTICE N. V. ANJARIA)

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Heard learned advocate Mr. Shivaprasad Shantanagoudar

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for the appellant and learned advocate Mr. T.P. Muthanna for the respondent.

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With the consent of learned advocates for the parties, the delay condonation application as well as the writ appeal both were taken up together.

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This application is filed seeking to condone the delay of 97

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days which has occurred in filing the appeal.

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The accompanying affidavit spells out the reasons for the passage of time leading to delay.

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In the facts and circumstances, delay is condoned and the application is allowed.

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NC: 2025:KHC:8205-DB WA No. 1033 of 2024

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ORDER IN WRIT APPEAL No.1033 OF 2024 ORAL JUDGMENT

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The appellant-original petitioner-State Bank Retirees'

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Association has filed the present appeal seeking to call in question the judgment and order dated 07.03.2024 passed by learned Single Judge, whereby the writ petition came to be dismissed.

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The prayer in the writ petition was to set aside the circular/notification dated 03.06.2011 terming it as violative of the Employees Pension Regulations, 1995 and the Memorandum of Settlement dated 29.10.1993. Further prayer was asked for to prohibit the respondent-Bank from stopping payment of pension for any reason whatsoever.

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The circular/notification dated 03.06.2011 in respect of which the petitioner-Association had grievance contains instructions for the pensioners and family pensioners who were the retired employees of the Bank. By the said circular/notification, the pensioners were instructed to submit their Life Certificates every year at the time of claiming pension. It was stated that as the pensioners have not been submitting their life certificates regularly, it has led to wrong payment of pensions.

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3.1 In above view, it was provided in the circular/notification that

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it shall be mandatory for all the pensioners and family pensioners to furnish the life certificate in the month of November each year in the prescribed format and that, unless such certificate is produced, pension would be liable to be stopped two months thereafter. It was provided further that life certificate in physical form should be submitted at any branch, not necessarily at the branch where his or her pension account exists. If the life certificate is submitted at non-home branch, it was provided, after updating the records, the non-home branch shall forward the original life certificate to the home branch.

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3.2 It was the case before learned Single Judge and urged in the appeal as well that the said requirement of furnishing of the life certificate could not be insisted upon every time and that the resultant stoppage of pension in the eventuality of a pensioner unable to provide such certificate, is arbitrary and amounts to breach of natural justice. It was contended that without following the natural justice, stopping of pension on the aforesaid ground would not be justified as the pension is not a bounty.

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3.3 On behalf of the petitioner, reliance was placed on the decisions of the Co-ordinate Bench of this Court in the case of H. Nagabhushana Rao vs. Under Secretary FFR Division-WZ Section Ministry of Home Affairs/Grih Mantralaya and others (2023 SCC Online Kar 5) . It was submitted on all such grounds that the prayers ought to have been granted by quashing the circular/notification and that, learned Single Judge erred in dismissing the writ petition and negating the prayers.

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Learned Single Judge relied on the following observations in paragraph 20 of the decision in the case of H. Nagabhushana Rao ( supra ) only, which was a case involving similar issue,

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"20. The officers have displayed apathy to the cause of the petitioner in the peculiar circumstances of the case by not taking the Life Certificate as by then the petitioner was 97 years old and was recipient of pension for a long time under the Scheme. Above all, all these submissions have been made and negatived by the coordinate Bench in the order quoted supra. Therefore, the petitioner would be entitled to all the arrears along with interest, as the Bank has failed to collect Life Certificate from the hands of the petitioner in terms of the guidelines. The Bank ought to have visited the petitioner and collected the Life Certificate and regulated pension. A caveat , not in every case the Bank is obliged to do so. In cases where there are genuine problems of pensioners who are unable to visit up to the Bank,

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it is the duty of the Bank officers to visit those persons and take Life Certificate and update them on the system. The pensioners could be septuagenarians, octogenarians, nonagenarians or centenarians like the petitioner. Therefore, this order cannot be construed to be sweeping direction in all cases where the Life Certificate has to be secured by the Bank officers, but in genuine cases, the Bank officers ought to perform their duty in terms of the guidelines so as to avoid unnecessary litigation of the kind that has been generated not once, twice, but three times.

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4.1 Learned Single Judge further reasoned, extracting from paragraph 7 as under,

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"7. ...this court is of the view that the notification being a mandate, thereby insisting on life certificate from the pensioners, is not unreasonable or arbitrary and the same may not act as an hindrance for the pensioner to receive a pension without interruption, subject to production of life certificate. The co-ordinate Bench, while examining the issue, has rightly held that in the event a pensioner, on account of ill health, is not in a position to visit the Bank physically, the Bank officials are under bounden duty to visit the employees residence and verify as to whether he is alive or not. The Co-ordinate Bench has meticulously examined the potential ramifications of this requirement and has suggested alternatives to safeguard adverse effects on pensioners. The Co-ordinate Bench has rightly suggested less intrusive alternative and the same could achieve the objective without unduly burdening the old pensioners. These guidelines substantially protect the pensioner's right and therefore, this Court is not inclined to quash the impugned notification."

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4.2 It was highlighted that in the event the pensioner's pension is suspended for want of life certificate, he or she can personally or through association can send such life certificate or communication or representation and shall also furnish the details of denial of pension.

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Therefore, a pensioner can send his life certificate through association also. Furthermore, as noted above, the impugned circular/notification itself provides that life certificate could be given to any branch of the Bank and that the appellant-Association will not face any hardship in that regard.

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5.1 The object of requiring the pensioners-the members of the appellant-Association to furnish the life certificate is to see that pension is not claimed wrongfully and that, frauds and fraudulent payments are arrested. The idea is that genuine pensioners get pension in time for which they have to submit the life certificates as indicated. Therefore, the circular/notification cannot be said to be arbitrary, unreasonable or stands in breach of any law.

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