JHARKHAND HIGH COURT ISSUES ORDER ON GIRISH CHANDRA V/S THE STATE OF JHARKHAND AND ORS.

RANCHI, India, Dec. 11 -- Jharkhand High Court issued the following order on Nov. 11:

1. Heard the parties.

2. The petitioner in this writ petition has prayed for his retiral benefits i.e. pension, gratuity, leave encashment, arrears of pay, allowances and other benefits.

3. It is the case of the petitioner that he was appointed on 16.06.1988 against the vacant and sanctioned post of Clerk. In 2009 his services was dispensed with but his retrenchment was set-aside. Thereafter, the petitioner continued in service and superannuated on attaining the age of superannuation i.e. on 31.12.2022. He was working in the office of the Special Land Acquisition Officer, Medium Irrigation Project, Deoghar and he superannuated on 31.12.2022. It is surprising that the Government after taking work from a person for long period is now back tracking from paying the retiral benefits on the ground that his services were not regularised. This cannot be a ground to deny retiral benefits.

4. Once a person has worked for more than 30 years even if he has not been regularised he should be treated to be regularised and his retiral benefits has to be paid. Serving this long years naturally leads to a conclusion that the work was perennial in nature and it was necessary to employ a person by the employer to perform the said work. If there was some illegality or irregularity in appointment, the same should have been taken note of and rectified immediately either by removing the irregularity or by removing the person. Once the person is allowed to work for more than 30 years and is allowed to superannuate, the respondents especially the State who is supposed to be a model employer cannot take a plea that since the services of the employee was not regularised, he is not entitled for any retiral benefits. In this type of situation where the person has worked for more than 30 years and he is allowed to superannuate even if he had worked against any unsanctioned post, a supernumerary post should have been created only for the purpose of granting the retiral benefits.

5. Thus, I direct the State to calculate the retiral benefits of the petitioner treating him to be in regular service and pay the same to the petitioner preferably within the period of 10 weeks from the date of receipt of the copy of this Order. The decision should be taken by the Secretary, Water Resources Department-respondent no. 2.

6. If the petitioner was not working against any sanctioned or vacant post, for the purpose of granting retiral benefits supernumerary post should be created to facilitate payment of the retiral benefits to the petitioner.

7. With the aforesaid observation, this writ petition is disposed of.

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.