Erring Officials To Be Held Accountable For Payment Of Cost "From Their Own Pockets" For Unnecessary Delay In Retiral Claims: Rajasthan High Court

The Rajasthan High Court at Jaipur recently issued a mandamus to all the Departments of the State to strictly comply with all the mandatory provisions contained under Chapter VI of the Rajasthan Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1996 and not to cause unnecessary delays in payment of pension and all retiral dues to eligible employees.

The single judge bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand observed,

“This mandamus must be strictly complied with, failing which the erring officer of the parent department as well as the pension department would be held responsible for violation of this order and they would be held accountable to payment of cost from their own pocket for causing unnecessary delay in payment of rightful post retiral claim of the retiring persons.”

The petitioner got voluntary retirement from the post of Revenue Inspector by order dated September 26, 2006. The Counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that the retiral dues of the petitioner have not been released in spite of passing of a considerable time post retirement.

It was further submitted that an objection was taken by the Audit Inspection Team in the year 2003 that irregular pay scale was given to the petitioner. However, the respondents submitted reply to the said objection on March 05, 2004 stating therein that no irregular pay scale was paid to the petitioner and a request was made to delete the said audit para.

On the other hand, the Counsel appearing for the respondents contended that because of the aforesaid audit objection, the retiral dues were not paid to the petitioner. It was further submitted that petitioner over stayed in the residential premises and he has not paid due rent for which a notice was given to him in the year 2007 but in spite of above, he has failed to deposit the due rent and arrears and therefore, the retiral dues have not been paid to the petitioner.

The Court noted,

“…the objection taken by the audit regarding irregularity in payment of pay scale to the petitioner is concerned the respondents are of the view that the said objection raised by the audit is not tenable and a detailed reply has been submitted by the respondents to the concerned officer, hence under these circumstances, the respondents were not having any authority to withhold the retiral dues of the petitioner.”

The Court further observed that so far as due rent is concerned, the respondents could have recovered the due rent amount from the retiral dues of the petitioner but in any case they were not having any authority to retain and withhold the whole retiral dues and such action of the respondents is quite unjustified.

Thus, the Court directed the respondents to release all retiral dues to the petitioner with interest of 9 percent per annum within a period of three months.

The Court further recorded its anguish on the state of affairs of the officials of the various departments of the State, It observed that they are taking these matters in such a casual way and are not bothering to pay the post retiral dues to the employees for years together and because of that the Courts are flooded with thousands of cases pertaining to post retiral dues.

The Court directed the Chief Secretary of the State to circulate the copy of the present order to all heads of the Departments for compliance of the general mandamus issued to avoid unnecessary litigation and to save their department and erring officers to pay and bear the cost of such litigation.

“The Chief Secretary is expected to do the needful exercise for effective implementation of this order within a period of two months and submit the compliance report to this Court on or before 16.10.2023,” the Court said.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Raj) 83

Case Title: Jitendra Kumar Jain v. State of Rajasthan & Ors.

Case no.: S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 4193/2008

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