Can an employer deny the entire annual bonus simply because an employee remained suspended for part of the financial year?

Consider a practical situation. An employee works for eight months and is then placed under suspension for four months pending a disciplinary inquiry. During suspension, the employer pays subsistence allowance instead of regular wages. At year-end, HR excludes the employee from the statutory bonus list, reasoning that the employee did not work throughout the year. Is this legally correct? Not necessarily. Suspension…