It Is Fundamental Right Of Employee To Receive Retiral Benefits If No Legal Impediment: Jharkhand HC

The Court was hearing a Writ Petition seeking a direction upon the respondent- State of Jharkhand for payment of entire pensionary benefits including pension, gratuity, GPF, GIS, leave encashment etc and salary in view of the fact that the order of dismissal was set aside by the appellate authority.

The bench of Justice S.N. Pathak observed, “This Court, in a plethora of judgments, has held that the pensionary benefits are not the bounty to be distributed at the sweet-will of the Authorities. It is the Constitutional and fundamental right of an employee to receive the retiral benefits, if there are no legal impediment.”

Brief Facts-

The petitioner Shrawan Kumar Das retired as an Assistant Teacher and was dismissed from service, but his dismissal was overturned by the appellate authority. Despite this, the petitioner did not receive their full retiral benefits, leading him to seek relief from the Court.

The Court noted that this is yet another glaring example of delay and laches on the part of the respondents for not extending the retiral benefits and the poor employee is being harassed at the hands of the respondents.

The Court said that nothing has been brought on record to show that either a criminal case or a departmental proceeding was pending against the petitioner.

The Court relied on the decision of the Supreme Court in State of Kerala Vs. M. Padmanabhan Nair, reported in (1985) 1 SCC 429 and quoted, “(the) pension and gratuity are no longer any bounty to be distributed by the Government to its employees on their retirement but have become, under the decisions of this Court, valuable rights and property in their hands and any culpable delay in settlement and disbursement thereof must be visited with the penalty of payment of interest at the current market rate till actual payment (to the employees)’.”

The Court further mentioned the decision of the Supreme Court State of Andhra Pradesh & Anr. vs. Dinavahi Lakshmi Kameswari reported in (2021) SCC OnLine SC 237 where according to the Court SC held that salaries and pensions are "rightful entitlements" of government employees and in case of delay, they should be paid with interest at an appropriate rate.

Accordingly, the Court directed the respondents to pay all retiral benefits including pension with interest at the rate of 6% per annum simple interest on the delayed payment of retiral benefits including the consequential benefits which were supposed to be paid upon quashing of the dismissal order by the appellate authority, from the date of entitlement till the date of the actual payment.

Finally, the Court allowed the Writ Petition.