Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has set aside the compulsory retirement of a Union Bank of India officer, holding that failure to repay personal credit card dues cannot be treated as misconduct warranting disciplinary action.
The order was passed by Justice Juvvadi Sridevi while hearing a petition filed by M Prakash Babu, who had joined the bank as a probationary officer in 1979 and was compulsorily retired in 2009.
The court not only quashed the retirement order but also directed the bank to treat Babu as having remained in service until his retirement age, and to extend all consequential benefits within eight weeks.
According to the case, the officer held a gold credit card with a sanctioned limit of Rs 1 lakh, on which the outstanding amount later rose to more than Rs 1.68 lakh due to interest and other charges. The bank initiated disciplinary proceedings and eventually ordered his compulsory retirement.
The petitioner told the court that he had faced financial difficulties due to medical expenses, unpaid leave during illness and his daughter’s marriage, and said he had authorised the bank to recover the outstanding amount directly from his salary.
The high court held that the credit card had been issued as a commercial banking product and not as part of the officer’s service conditions. It ruled that while the bank had the authority to recover the dues from his salary, the default could not be treated as misconduct under the applicable service rules.
This post was last modified on July 30, 2026 11:04 am