India, March 21 -- The Bombay high court recently pulled up the Punjab National Bank for conducting a "manipulated" inquiry against a former employee and directed it to pay a compensation of Rs.5 lakh to the petitioner for the injustice meted out to him.

The petitioner, Vinayak Balchandra Ghanekar, 63, had joined the bank on June 16, 1981, and was scheduled to superannuate on June 30, 2018. Alleging irregularities in a loan amount sanctioned to him, the bank dismissed him after a departmental enquiry on the day of his retirement.

Ghanekar in his petition invoked violation of natural justice, alleging that the enquiry was completed in one day without giving him time to study the documents. "It is settled that while conducting a departmen...