Barclays' whistleblowing policies 'only on paper' -judge

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Former IT manager awarded two years' pay by Indian court

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Had raised concerns over handling of data loss -judgment

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Barclays to appeal, hearing due on Oct. 20 -filings

By Lawrence White and Kirstin Ridley

LONDON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - 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 the western Indian city of Pune said in a March 28 judgment published online, which was seen by Reuters and is reported here for the first time.

The Pune court ordered Barclays to pay Atul Gupta two years' salary, totalling around 9,600,000 Indian rupees ($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 Oct. 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...

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