Person Not Heard Of For Seven Years Is To Be Presumed As Dead: Calcutta HC Directs Bank Of India To Release Ex-Gratia Payment To Erstwhile Employee's Wife
The Calcutta High Court directed the Bank of India to release an ex-gratia lump sum payment to the wife of its erstwhile employee who had been missing since 2007 observing that the bank should not have any difficulty presuming the death of a person missing for seven years.
The bank had previously issued an order acknowledging the presumption of the employee’s death on the date when the missing person report was filed. Consequently, terminal benefits were released to the petitioners. However, the request for a compassionate appointment for the petitioner's son was denied.
A Single Bench of Justice Rai Chattopadhyay observed, “This Court finds that the Bank should not have any difficulty in presumption of death of the person when admittedly for more than seven years, no where abouts of the said missing person could be traced. And in that event, there should not be any impediment for the respondent Bank to allow a wider connotation to the scheme as mentioned above to consider the present writ petitioners to be beneficiaries under the said scheme.”
Advocate Kishore Mukherjee represented the petitioner, while Advocate R.N. Majumder appeared for the respondents.
The wife of the missing employee had filed a writ petition seeking the release of ex-gratia payment alleging that her husband went missing in 2007 and has since remained untraceable. Her husband had been employed as a peon with the Bank of India since 1983. Despite repeated requests for the release of terminal benefits and ex-gratia payment, the bank did not respond.
The petitioner argued that the Bank had already accepted the presumed death when settling terminal benefits, so the lump sum ex-gratia should also be automatically released to the petitioners.
On the other hand, the bank contended that the Civil Court had not decreed the death of the missing person and that the bank's scheme did not include provisions for ex-gratia payments to the heirs of missing employees.
“Having not denied service of the said missing person with the respondent Bank for years together the Bank cannot shut the doors on the face of his legal heirs when time comes for the Bank authorities to compensate adequately, the legal heirs of the person, in absence of the said person,” the Court remarked.
Explaining that if a person remains untraceable for over seven years, their death may be presumed, the Bench observed, “The greater objective of supporting the family of an employee who may not be in a position to earn and support the family, cannot be sub-served for some technical reasons.”
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the petition.
Cause Title: Smt. Tara Devi & Anr. v. Bank of India & Ors.
Appearance:
Petitioner: Advocate Kishore Mukherjee
Respondents: Advocates R.N. Majumder, S.M. Obaidullah and Roni Chowdhuri
