Court No. - 6
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 9573 of 2020
Petitioner :- Sanjana Mittal
Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 5 Others
Counsel for Petitioner :- Kamal Kumar Kesherwani
Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Pankaj Bhatia,J.
Heard Sri Kamal Kumar Kesherwani, counsel for the petitioner and the Standing Counsel for the State-respondents.
The present petition has been filed seeking a direction upon the respondents to pay gratuity to the petitioner, which remained unpaid.
The contention of the counsel for the petitioner is that the husband of the petitioner was initially appointed as Lecturer (Math) on 30.6.2007, however, he died in harness on 26.2.2018 before reaching the age of 60 years of superannuation. The contention of the counsel for the petitioner is that in terms of the Government Order dated 7.5.2017, Clause 5, the petitioner is entitled to gratuity. The request of the petitioner has been rejected vide order dated 11.8.2020 solely on the ground that prior to the death of the husband of the petitioner, the option was not given for retirement at the age of 60 years. Thus, the contention of the counsel for the petitioner is that even if the option was not given by the husband of the petitioner, the admitted case is that the husband of the petitioner died in harness prior to the date of superannuation. He relies upon a judgement of this Court in Writ-A No. 7416 of 2019 (Smt. Sarvesh Kumari Vs. State of U.P. and Others), reported in 2019 (7) ADJ 357, wherein the entire scope of the Government Order was considered.
Considering the fact that the issue is no more alive in view of the specific decision of this Court in Writ-A No. 7416 of 2019 that the gratuity would be payable to the employees, who died while in service and following the same it is clear that the petitioner would be entitled for release of the gratuity payable in terms of the Government Order dated 7.5.2017.
Accordingly, the writ petition is allowed following the judgement of this Court in the case of Smt. Sarvesh Kumari (Supra). The petitioner shall be paid the gratuity to which the husband of the petitioner was entitled, as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of three months from the date of filing of the application along with a copy of the order downloaded from the official website of this Court, which shall be treated as certified copy of this order.
Order Date :- 22.9.2021
S. Rahman