Court No. - 33
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 9126 of 2021 Petitioner :- Shrivijay Singh Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Chandra Prakash Yadav,Shailesh Kumar Singh Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Ashwani Kumar Mishra,J.
Following orders were passed in the matter on 4.8.2021:-
"Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Standing Counsel appearing for the respondents.
The petitioner was working as Senior Agricultural Marketing Inspector Class-II in Agricultural Marketing Department, Jangipur, Ghazipur and has retired on 30.06.2004. The petitioner is suffering from prostate cancer (Adenocarcinoma of Prostate) since 2017, for which he is going under regular treatment at Varanasi.
The petitioner has submitted medical bills for reimbursement for the period 15.02.2020 to 18.08.2020, total amounting to Rs.1,87,185/- to the respondent no.2-Asistant Agricultural Marketing Officer, Varanasi on 22.09.2020, who vide letter dated 05.10.2020 asked the petitioner to approach the District Magistrate, Ghazipur, as he has has retired from District Ghazipur.
Pursuant to the said letter dated 05.10.2020 of respondent no.2, the petitioner submitted application to the respondent no.3-District Magistrate, Ghazipur for medical reimbursement, who on 24.12.2020 sought verification from the Chief Medical Officer, Ghazipur regarding the medical submitted by the petitioner. On which, the Chief Medical Officer, Ghazipur on 12.01.2021 verified the medical for Rs.1,80,185/- and remitted the same to the respondent no.3-District Magistrate, Ghazipur for further action.
Similarly, the Chief Medical Officer, Ghazipur vide letter dated 17.05.2021 also verified the medical bills submitted by the petitioner for Rs.67,162/- and remitted the same to the respondent no.3-District Magistrate, Ghazipur for further action.
The grievance of the petitioner is that the petitioner is suffering from serious disease and despite the fact that medical bills submitted by him though has been certified by the Chief Medical Officer, Ghazipur, but the respondent no.3 has not released the reimbursement amount.
Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the bills for reimbursement for the period 18.03.2021 to 12.06.2021 have also been submitted by the petitioner, which has also not been forwarded.
Considering the fact that the petitioner is suffering from prostate cancer and needs medical treatment regularly, for which he needs finance and if the bills are not reimbursed quickly, that will cause serious prejudice to the petitioner as that will hamper the treatment of the petitioner for want of finance.
In this view of the fact, this Court finds appropriate to direct the respondent no.3-District Magistrate, Ghazipur to make the payment of the aforesaid medical bills before the date fixed. In case the aforesaid payment is not made, the respondent no.3 shall appear in person before this Court to explain as to why the payment of medical reimbursement of the aforesaid amount has not been made to the petitioner.
Put up this case as fresh on 23rd August, 2021."
A compliance affidavit has been filed on behalf of District Magistrate, Ghazipur, stating that first bill of Rs. 1,87,185/- was submitted on 15.10.2020, which has been sanctioned on 17.7.2021. The second medical bill has also been sanctioned after about a year on 28.8.2021. The third amount of Rs. 80,381/- has been paid on 2.9.2021. Though bills were submitted in the year 2020 and the petitioner was suffering from prostate cancer, yet the authorities have not considered the matter and after notices have been served in the present writ petition upon the office of learned Standing Counsel that the authorities have released the amount of reimbursement against the medical bills.
This Court notices that action of the authorities in withholding the amount against medical bills causes extreme hardship to retire employee suffering from serious ailments. The authorities of the State are expected to be considerate/cautious of the difficulties faced by such patients and their bills ought to be processed and released, expeditiously. Release of payment against such claims is governed by the provisions of Uttar Pradesh Government Servants (Medical Attendance) Rules, 2011. Rule 17(a) and 17(b) specifies a time limit within which such claims ought to be processed and released. Rules 17(a) & (b) are reproduced hereinafter:-
"17. (a) The sanctioning authority or the Head of Office in case of the pensioner shall send the claim to the competent authority for technical examination within ten days from the date of its submission. The concerned authority shall return back the claim to sanctioning authority or the Head of Office, as the case may be, after due technical examination indicating the actual reimbursable amount within fifteen days.
(b) Unless certain objections have been raised and communicated, the reimbursement order shall be issued within one month from the date of receiving the technical examination report from the sanctioning authority and the Drawing and Disbursing Officer shall ensure its actual payment within the next fifteen days. If in the case of the pensioners, the Head of Office is not the sanctioning authority, he shall forward the reimbursement claim along with the technical examination report to the sanctioning authority within seven days, who shall follow the above schedule for payment."
In the facts of the present case, it is apparent that the aforesaid rule has not been complied with. No reasons have been disclosed as to why medical bills have remained pending for so long. In such circumstances, a writ of mandamus is issued directing the respondents to release interest at the rate of 8% per annum for the delay caused in release of reimbursement of medical bills. Cost of Rs. 25,000/- is also awarded to the petitioner for the harassment caused to him in the process. It shall be open for the State to determine the responsibility of the officer, who is found responsible for such delay caused and to recover such amount from his salary, in accordance with law.
The aforesaid amount shall be released to the petitioner within a period of six weeks from the date of presentation of a copy of this order.
With the above observations and directions, this writ petition stands disposed of.
Order Date :- 20.9.2021 Ranjeet Sahu