Mumbai: The Bombay high court has asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to clarify its stand on the plea of a senior citizen and husband of its former employee, who is seeking reimbursement of Rs 6 lakh as the cost of importing a cancer medicine for his wife.
The division bench headed by Justice Anoop Mohta has issued the notice to the SBI after the plea was filed by Pune resident Nagesh Marathe. In the plea, Mr Marathe has said that his wife Ranjana worked for the bank’s Pune branch from 1983 till she died in June 2015, but the bank has refused to reimburse the cost of medicine, which was imported for her from Belgium.
According to Mr Marathe, though the medicine was procured from Belgium at the cost of Rs 6.10 lakh, however, it could not be administered to her as her health deteriorated and she died.
The petitioner said that since 2013 when Ranjana was diagnosed with cancer and the treatment was initiated, the bank paid all her bills on a regular basis. Later, Mr Marathe applied to the SBI for reimbursement of the consultation fees and the costs of medicines. According to petitioner, the bank said it would reimburse only Rs 2 lakh of the entire bill and denied reimbursement of the remaining amount stating that importing medicine was not allowed and not required as the same treatment was available even in India. According to petitioner, medicine Kadcyla TMD-I was not available in India.
