Kerala University orders recovery of ₹16.5 lakh from faculty member for erroneous foreign remittance

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The Kerala University has ordered the recovery of nearly ₹16.5 lakh that was allegedly lost in a controversial foreign currency transfer involving the university’s Centre for Latin American Studies (CLAS). An official communication from the Registrar has ordered CLAS Director, Prof. Girish Kumar R., to compensate the amount. However, the Kerala University Teachers’ Organisation (KUTO) has criticised the move, which purportedly ignores the financial error committed by the State Bank of India (SBI) in the erroneous transfer.

The issue concerns a two-week summer school programme conducted in May 2023, after which a Brazil-based journalist was remunerated for delivering online lectures as part of the programme. Prof. Kumar had approached the SBI Karyavattom branch to remit an amount equivalent to ₹20,000 in US Dollars from CLAS’ account as honorarium for the journalist. However, the bank erroneously made a remittance of US $20,000 to the Bank of America. It was only some weeks later that CLAS detected the absence of ₹16,51,500 from its bank account. With SBI failing to recall the amount, Prof. Kumar approached the RBI’s Banking Ombudsman.

Subsequently, a Syndicate sub-committee comprising the convenors of the Standing Committees of the Syndicate on Finance, Staff, Equipment and Buildings, probed the matter and recommended that the CLAS Director be exempted from any disciplinary proceeding, and called for legal action against the bank. However, the Registrar has maintained that no prior permission had been obtained for making a payment in foreign exchange to a foreign citizen.

Denying any liability on his part “to compensate the university for the loss arising from the mistake committed by SBI officials in processing the remittance”, Prof. Kumar has written to university authorities, seeking steps to initiate legal action against the bank for recovery at the earliest. Considering the erroneous transfer was done on June 15, 2023, the statutory period for initiating legal action woul