A bank is entitled to suspend an employee under paragraph 521(10)(b) of the Sastri Award pending an enquiry or initiation of an enquiry, and while a criminal prosecution is pending against the employee.

SUJATA V.MANOHAR, J.

(1) THE respondent was a clerk-cum-cashier in the Ranchi branch of the State Bank of India it the material time. The appellant-State Bank of India, by an order dated 23/7/1993, placed the respondent under suspension. The order of suspension stated as under:

" 1. Certain acts of gross misconduct on your part have been brought to the notice of the undersigned. It has, therefore, been decided to place you under suspension from bank service with immediate effect in terms of para. 521(10)(b) of the Sastri Award as retained in the Desai Award.

2. During the period of suspension, you are being attached to Hatia branch to draw your subsistence allowance, which shall be paid in terms of provisions of the Sastri Award as retained in the Desai Award and as modified in para. 5 of XVII of the Memorandum of Bipartite Settlement dated Septembers, 1983."

According to the appellant, the order of suspension was a result of the respondent having dishonestly passed and got an amount of Rs. 3 lakhs against a cheque dated 19/7/1993, in respect of an alleged current account in the name of K. P. Sharma which current account was not existing. An FIR was lodged in respect of the said incident on 30/7/1993, after the appellant bank collected the relevant documents along with other evidence. Thereafter, the investigation was carried out by the CBI and a criminal prosecution has also been launched, inter alia, against the respondent, which is still pending.

(2) ON 3/7/1996, the respondent filed a writ petition challenging the order of suspension dated 23/7/1993. He contended that no departmental enquiry had been initiated and the respondent was kept under suspension for more than three years and hence, the order of suspension was illegal. This writ petition was dismissed by the learned single Judge. However, in appeal, the Division Bench of the High Court, by its impugned judgment, set aside the order of the learned single Judge and allowed the writ petition of the respondent. Hence, the present appeal has been filed by the appellant-bank.

(3) THE order of suspension itself states that the order has been issued in terms of paragraph 521(10)(b) of the Sastri Award as retained in the Desai Award. The relevant portions of paragraph 521 of the Sastri Award are as follows:

"PARA, 521(2)(a) When in the opinion of the management an employee has committed an offence, unless he be otherwise prosecuted, the bank may take steps to prosecute him or get him prosecuted; and in such a case he may also be suspended. 10(b) Pending such inquiry or initiation of such inquiry he may be suspended, but if on the conclusion of the enquiry it is decided to take no action against him he shall be deemed to have been on duty and shall be entitled to the full wages and allowances and to all other privileges for the period of suspension, and if some punishment other than dismissal is inflicted the whole or a part of the period of suspension, may, at the discretion of the management, be treated as on duty with the right to a corresponding portion of the wages, allowance, etc."

(4) THE words "or initiation of such inquiry" in clause (10)(b) of paragraph 521 have been added to the said sub-clause pursuant to the Bipartite Settlement dated 17/9/1984.

(5) THEREFORE, the suspension of the respondent by the order of July 23, 1993, can be considered as both under paragraph 521(10)(b) as also under paragraph 521(2)(a), since at the relevant time, both a departmental enquiry as well as a criminal prosecution were under contemplation. Thereafter, in view of the pendency of the criminal prosecution, the appellant did not initiate a departmental enquiry. The order of suspension, therefore, cannot be faulted looking to the provisions set out above. When a criminal prosecution on serious charges is pending against the respondent, the bank is entitled to suspend him. In this connection, our attention has been drawn to a