- (1.)Heard Mr. Chander Uday Singh learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the Appellants and the Respondent appearing in person. Leave granted.
(2.)This appeal has been filed by the State Bank of Patiala being aggrieved by the impugned order dated 22.11.2012 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in Civil Writ Petition No. 12605 of 2005 filed by the Respondent herein whereby the writ petition was allowed. The facts in this appeal are that the Respondent, at the relevant time was a Middle Management Scale-II Officer and was working as Branch Manager in the Appellant Bank. He was placed under suspension for accepting the illegal gratification of Rs. 8000/- on 11th March, 1995 in connection with the disbursement of a loan. He was charged under Section 7 and 13(i)(d) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and was convicted by Trial Court and sentenced to undergo R.I. for two years with a fine of Rs. 2,500/-.
(3.)Being aggrieved, the Respondent challenged the said order of conviction by way of filing an appeal before the High Court. The appeal was admitted by the High Court and conviction and sentence was ordered to be suspended during the pendency of the appeal. On the basis of the Trial Court's order, the Bank discharged the Respondent from its service from 30.12.2003. Being aggrieved by the order of discharge from service, the Respondent filed a statutory appeal which was dismissed. The Respondent requested the Bank for the payment of pension and other consequential benefits which was declined on account of discharge from service. The Bank was of the view that he was not entitled to any pensionary benefits.