HARIHARA AYYAR A Vs. STATE BANK OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A retired employee/officer of state bank of india, is before this court inter alia seeking the following reliefs:

(2.) THE facts in nutshell are: petitioner had joined the services of the respondent-state bank of India (hereinafter for the sake of brevity referred to as 'bank'), as probationary officer on November 14, 1963. After successful completion of probation, he was confirmed in the post by respondent-bank. After completing 29 years and 5 months of service, when he was working as general manager (inspection), he sought for voluntary retirement from service. The competent authority of the bank, permitted the petitioner to retire from service voluntarily and he was relieved from service at the close of business hours on April 30, 1993. After his retirement from service, the bank has sanctioned and paid his terminal benefits which he was entitled to under service rules and the employees pension fund rules of the bank.

(3.) THE bank has introduced a scheme called "state bank of India retired employees' medical benefit scheme" (for short "medical scheme"), which has come into force with effect from July 1, 1996. The object of the scheme is to provide financial assistance in meeting, partly or fully, within the specified limits, hospitalisation expenses for treatment of specified diseases/ailments to retired employees and their spouses, where expenditure involved is large and the treatment is taken at hospitals/nursing homes, which have been approved by the bank for that purpose. Clause 3 of the scheme provides for membership. The same is relevant for the purpose of this case and therefore, it is extracted and it reads as under: