Barclays is seeking to overturn a ruling by an Indian court that found the British bank had retaliated against a whistleblower, legal filings show.

The case concerns a former senior IT manager who raised concerns about how a data loss had been handled.

Barclays’ whistleblowing policy “appears to be in existence only on paper”, a district court in Pune said in a March 28 judgment published online, which was seen by Reuters.

The Pune court ordered Barclays to pay Atul Gupta two years’ salary, totalling around Rs 96,00,000 ($115,620), saying the bank’s Indian
service company had made him redundant “in retaliation to his whistleblowing act”.

A hearing for Barclays’ appeal to the Bombay High Court is listed for October 20, court records show. One source familiar with the case said the bank was attempting to strike out the award.

“Barclays is unequivocally committed to having a culture where colleagues feel comfortable to speak up when something isn’t right and no employee is excluded from being able to raise a concern — by contract or otherwise,” a bank spokesperson said.

“We take the protection of whistleblowers very seriously and have zero tolerance for whistleblower retaliation,” the spokesperson added. They declined to comment on the specifics of the Indian case.

Barclays has faced other fines and regulatory censure for failing to protect people who raise red flags, after former chief executive Jes Staley in 2017 sought to unmask a whistleblower who had sent letters criticising a bank employee.