The High Court earlier ruled in favor of the retired employee, quashing the disciplinary proceedings against him and directing the state to release all his pending dues.
New Delhi: On 19th Feb, The Supreme Court ordered the West Bengal government to pay a fine of Rs 10 lakh to a retired government employee who has not received his full retirement benefits even after 18 years. The employee, who retired in 2007, has been getting only a provisional pension while waiting for his dues.
The case was heard by a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta. They found that the petition filed by the West Bengal government challenging a High Court order was “completely frivolous and vexatious.”
The High Court earlier ruled in favor of the retired employee, quashing the disciplinary proceedings against him and directing the state to release all his pending dues.
The Supreme Court noted that the West Bengal government had delayed filing its petition by 391 days. Despite this long delay, the court still examined the case on its merits. However, the state government failed to provide any proper reason for this delay.
The background of the case goes back to 1994, when the employee was cleared of any wrongdoing after a disciplinary inquiry. But in 1997, a show cause notice was issued proposing punishment, disagreeing with the inquiry’s findings. No action was taken after this notice.
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Surprisingly, 13 years later, in June 2010, a second show cause notice was issued for the same matter that was first investigated in 1989. The retired employee challenged this in a tribunal, which instructed the employer to make a final decision. Unhappy with the tribunal’s response, the employee approached the High Court, which ruled in his favor.
The Supreme Court strongly criticized the West Bengal government for the delay in paying the employee’s retirement benefits.
The court stated, “Taking note of the facts, as recorded above, it is unfortunate that the person, who was retired in 2007 even after 18 years has still not been paid his retiral dues and is only getting provisional pension.”
The bench dismissed the state government’s petition both on the grounds of delay and on merits.
It ordered that “We dismiss these petitions filed by the State of West Bengal on the ground of delay as well as on merits and also impose costs of Rs 10,00,000/- (Rupees Ten Lakh only), to be paid to the respondent within four weeks from today. Further, all the pending retiral dues be paid within the same time.”
Case Title: THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL & ORS. VERSUS MD. KAMALUDDIN ANSARI & ORS.
