If there is no trace of an employee for seven years, they should be presumed to be dead. And therefore, their heirs should be eligible for their terminal benefits, ruled the Calcutta High Court. A single bench of Justice Rai Chattopadhyay ruled in favour of Tara Devi who had filed a write petition demanding that her husband’s ex-gratia be released by his employer, Bank of India.
The ex-gratia amount was not being released because the bank (employer of the missing employee) was unsure whether the said employee was alive or dead. The employee had been missing for over seven years, but the bank’s scheme could not release the ex-gratia amount and terminal benefits to the heirs without proof of the employee being dead. Also, the bank’s scheme had not provision for a missing employee.
The Calcutta HC, however, ruled in favour of the employee’s wife and heirs stating that if an employee was not to be found for seven years, they should be presumed dead—as per Section 108 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872—and their terminal benefits should be passed on to the living heirs. As per the Act, if an individual has not contacted his family or heirs for seven years, the burden of proving that he is alive rests on the person who affirms it. Also, as per the Calcutta HC, the employer of the missing employee, the bank in this case, cannot deny adequate compensation to the legal heirs of the said employee in the latter’s absence.
The Court order Bank of India to release the money to the heirs—within four weeks—along with interest from the date of the application until the date of actual payment.
