Court directs to deposit Rs 2.96 Cr in bank employees' accounts

Aurangabad, Feb 14:

The Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court issued orders on Monday to deposit Rs 2.96 crore of dearness allowance (DA) amount into the accounts of retired employees of Parbhani District Central Co-operative Bank (PDCCB).

According to details, the PDCCB approved a resolution on February 28, 2000, to freeze the DA of retired employees. A total of 147 employees moved to the Industrial Court in Jalna against this. In 2016, the industrial court ruled that the bank's actions were illegal and ordered it to return the frozen amount with 6 per cent interest.

The bank had challenged the decision of the Industrial Court in the HC Aurangabad bench. The HC upheld the decision of the Industrial Court. The bank had approached Supreme Court (SC) against the decision of the Industrial Court and HC.

The SC rejected the bank's appeal. It apex court directed the Aurangabad bench to decide on the period within which the amount of frozen DA should be paid to the employees. The bank had deposited a total of Rs 2.96 crore in the court following its directions. The HC issued directives to deposit the DA amount in the bank accounts of the employees. Adv Yurvaj Barahate and adv Sudhir Bhalerao appeared for the petitioners.