LUCKNOW, Sept. 17 -- Calling the process "abominable" and "clearly an anathema to banking practice", the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has pulled up the State Bank of India (SBI) for debiting Rs.19.90 lakh from a widow's fixed deposit (FD) towards her deceased husband's loan dues.

A division bench of Justice Shekhar B Saraf and Justice Abdhesh Kumar Chaudhary passed the judgment on September 10, uploaded recently, on a petition filed by Neha Mishra.

The court held that SBI had failed to show any legal basis for debiting the said money from Neha Mishra's account to cover her husband's dues. Mishra's husband, an assistant professor at a Lucknow hospital, had taken a Rs.15 lakh loan from SBI on November 3, 2020.

The order reco...