Court No. - 34
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 29307 of 2014 Petitioner :- Dr. Durga Prasad Dwivedi Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 5 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- R.N. Yadav,Ashok Khare Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Sudhir Agarwal,J. Hon'ble Ifaqat Ali Khan,J.
1. Heard Sri Ashok Khare, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Sri R. N. Yadav, learned counsel for petitioner and learned Standing Counsel for State-respondents no.1 to 5.
2. Admittedly, petitioner retired from the post of Principal in Shri Durga Ji Post Graduate College Chandeshwar, Azamgarh on 30.6. 2010 after completion of 62 years of age i.e. at the age of superannuation. Retiral benefits due to petitioner have not been paid on the ground that there was some audit objection in respect of certain amount and, therefore, final pension of petitioner was not sanctioned/approved by competent authority.
3. Learned counsel for petitioner submitted that at no point of time he was ever served with any charge sheet or show cause notice or no order of any recovery or punishment has ever been passed by authorities concerned, hence, non payment of retiral dues to petitioner for last 8 years is patently illegal and arbitrary.
4. When questioned, learned counsel for respondents no.1 to 5 also could not dispute that at no point of time any enquiry has ever been initiated against petitioner in accordance with law and any order of recovery has ever been passed in that respect.
5. If that is so, non payment of retiral dues to petitioner for whatever reason attributable to respondents is clearly arbitrary. Retiral dues of an employee should not be withheld for vague reasons as a person is entitled to the same after having completed a reasonable length of service and the same cannot be denied to such retired person, unless appropriate order in accordance with law to withhold such benefit has been passed, which has not been done in the case in hand.
6. In view of above discussions, impugned order dated 11.3.2014 passed by respondent no.2 i.e. Director of Education (Higher Education), U. P., Allahabad is hereby set aside. Respondents are directed to pay entire retiral dues to the petitioner along with interest at the rate of 8 % per annum (simple) within three months. The interest shall be computed after three months from the date of retirement till date of actual payment of entire amount.
7. Writ petition is allowed with aforesaid observations.
Order Date :- 24.4.2018
Manish Himwan