Delhi High Court: Orders Punjab & Sind Bank to Pay Manager for Foiled Robbery

The Delhi High Court recently directed the Punjab & Sind Bank to pay an amount of ₹50,000, along with an annual interest of 12 percent, to a manager who had foiled a robbery attempt at its Najafgarh Branch in 1998 [Surjit Singh Vs Punjab & Sind Bank].Justice Neena Bansal Krishna also awarded litigation costs of ₹2 lakh to the manager, Surjit Singh, while taking exception to the management’s conduct of making him suffer litigation for 28 years over compensation for his bravery.The Court said that instead of the bank and the government itself rewarding Singh in accordance with the relevant guidelines, they added insult to injury by asserting that his act was not covered by the guidelines."Such conduct is not becoming of the Bank, which itself, in fact, should have rewarded and acknowledged the Petitioner for his exemplary conduct, rather than driving him to seek reward to which he was entitled. It has taken him since 28 years to get the validation of his act," the Court said.The Court added that the question was not of money but of the honour, which should have come to him on its own without litigation. Justice Neena Bansal KrishnaThe Court observed that the robbery incident was straight out of fiction. One winter afternoon in December 1998, five armed robbers stormed into the bank with automatic weapons. The armed security guards surrendered their weapons and the cashier complied with the robbers’ threats for cash.Singh, despite being surrounded by