Plea in Punjab and Haryana High Court challenges post-retirement appointment of SBI Legal Head

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to respond to a petition challenging the post-retirement contractural appointment of the bank's Legal Head.

Justice Jagmohan Bansal also sought the response of the SBI Legal Head Anant Trimbakrao Thorat.

A detailed copy of the order is awaited.

Thorat's continued appointment has been challenged by Raj Kumar Sharma, a 75-year-old from Haryana's Panchkula. The High Court had earlier questioned the petitioner's locus to challenge the appointment.

Today, his counsel Harsh Chopra cited various judgments to establish Sharma's locus. The Court then decided to entertain the plea.

As per the petition, Thorat retired in July 2018 as General Manager (Legal) but continues to remain in the SBI legal department as a contractual employee. The extension bypasses the upper age limit of 65 and has been granted without proper selection process, the plea alleges.

According to Sharma, the SBI ignored the circulars issued by the Ministry of Finance to limit the re-employment of retired bank officials only to exceptional cases.

The plea also states that the SBI refused to disclose information under Right to Information (RTI) Act about Thorat's re-employment.

Post his retirement, Thorat was initially engaged as an advisor on contract for a period of two years.

After the SBI started receiving various applications under RTI Act about Thorat's appointment as advisor, an advertisement was issued for various posts including Head (Legal). The criteria was tailor-made for Thorat leading to his appointment, the plea has claimed.

"All applications except that of Respondent No.6 were summarily, malafidely and arbitrarily rejected in the preliminary scrutiny to retain only Respondent No. 6 as the sole candidate," it states.

Sharma has also mentioned that Thorat's extended appointment has meant that the in-service candidates, who could be appointed to the top legal post, have been ignored. Thus, he has sought quashing of Thorat's post-retirement contractual appointment.