Court No. - 32
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 16496 of 2021 Petitioner :- Bank Of Maharashtra Respondent :- The Controlling Authority Under The Payment Of Gratuity Act 1972 And Another Counsel for Petitioner :- R.B. Sahai Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.I.
Hon'ble Rohit Ranjan Agarwal,J.
This writ petition has been filed assailing the order dated 28.01.2020 passed by the respondent no. 1/Controlling Authority and Assistant Labour Commissioner (Central), Jhansi, determining the gratuity payable to the respondent no. 2 to the tune of Rs. 16,128,91/-. The operative portion of the order passed by respondent no. 1 is extracted hereasunder;
"In view of the above, the applicant is entitled to receive gratuity amount to the tune of Rs. 1612891.00 (Sixteen lakh twelve thousand eight hundred ninety one only) out of which applicant has already received gratuity amount of Rs. 1000000.00 (Ten lakh). Hence applicant is entitled to receive differential amount of gratuity of Rs. 612891.00 from Respondent Bank of Maharashtra along with simple interest @ 7% P.A. from 01/03/2018 to the date of this order but the amount of interest should not be anyway more than balance gratuity amount to be paid."
It is contended by learned counsel for the petitioner that gratuity has been miscalculated as the notification issued by Central Government mandates that gratuity payable to an employee of Central Government is Rs. 10,000,00/-. This fact has not been considered by the respondent no. 1 as an amount of Rs. 10,000,00/- has already been disbursed to the respondent no. 2/claimant and the only issue which remains is for receiving the differential amount of gratuity of Rs. 6,128,91/-.
In a similar circumstances this Court in Writ-C NO. 16165 of 2021, Bank of Maharashtra Vs. The Controlling Authority and another on 29.07.2021 had disposed of the matter relegating the matter to the respondent no. 1 to decide the objection of the petitioner that the ceiling on the gratuity amount as notified by the Central Government and is applicable to the facts of this case is Rs. 10,00,000/- and the direction to pay any amount in excess of amount already paid is in the teeth of such notification.
In view of the above, present matter is also relegated to respondent no. 1 to redetermine the amount of gratuity after affording opportunity of hearing to the petitioner and matter would be heard and decided, in accordance with law, keeping in view the aforesaid notification of Central Government. The recovery of amount to the extent of Rs. 6,128,91/- shall remain stayed for a period of five months and it is expected that respondent no. 1 shall decide the matter regarding payment of differential amount within next three months from the date of receipt of copy of this order downloaded from the official website of the High Court With the aforesaid, writ petition is disposed of.
Order Date :- 23.9.2021 Shekhar