State Bank of India and Others vs Vijay Shankar Pandey

This is a Letters Patent Appeal which has been filed by the State Bank of India resisting the proposition that a sum of Rs. 65,364/- apparently was not permitted to be adjusted as a claim from the Respondent, one Vijay Shanker Pandey. Otherwise this amount had been deducted from the retirement benefits of the employee who took voluntary retirement.

This employee was checked into Apollo Hospital, New Delhi. The learned Judge records that ''The employee suffered from craniopharyngiona and Panypopatnisarison (Brain Tumour) associated with various other serious complications during the end of 1997. He consulted the Bank''s Medical officer, who referred his case for specialized treatment in Indraprashta Apollo Hospital, New Delhi as there was no arrangement for treatment of such diseases locally. Simply put for a lay man this employee underwent brain surgery for removal of a tumour.

The amount in issue, in fact, had been paid to the hospital. This amount had already been sanctioned for payment within the bank. It appears that the surgery was successful. The employee returned from the hospital, worked and thereafter he took voluntary retirement.

Now begins an issue whether the employee was entitled to a medical facility according to rank and status.

Every conceivable aspect has been noticed by the learned Judge. In so far as this Court is concerned, it is a matter of a life under Article 21. Then, in a matter like the present one, the life of a person hangs in a balance from a fulcrum which is thinner that the strand of a cobweb. Thus, this Court is not about to make a mistake in delivering a decision that this amount be not paid as the reasonableness of medicare and the quality of it is a matter which is judged at the right moment by whoever is incharge of surgery and medicine.

The Court is not inclined to interfere with the decision of the learned Judge.

Dismissed.