High Court
Case Details
WP(C) 4569/2008 BEFORE THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE UJJAL BHUYAN JUDGMENT AND ORDER (Oral)
Legal Reasoning
(Ujjal Bhuyan,J.) 1. Heard Mr. S. Chauhan, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. U. K. G oswami, learned Standing Counsel for the Education Department, Assam, appearing for respondent Nos. 1, 3 & 5. There is no representation on behalf of Karbi Angl ong Autonomous Council. However, Ms. B. Barua, learned counsel appears for Direc tor of Pension, Assam, respondent No.2. 2. By way of this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, p etitioner seeks a direction to the respondents to include the service rendered b y him in the then Mikir Hills (now Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council) for the per iod from 10.07.1963 to 19.12.1981 for the purpose of computation of pension and other retiral benefits. Case of the petitioner is that he was appointed as assistant teacher in 3. the Dillawjan No.2 L.P. School in the then Mikir Hills district on 08.07.1963 by the Primary Education Board, Mikir Hills following which he joined service on 1 0.07.1963. While he was serving in the New Assam Balijan L.P. School in the said district, which was renamed as Karbi Anglong district, on his own request, Dire ctor of Elementary Education, Assam, issued order dated 19.12.1981, transferring the petitioner to Dilli Duanik L.P. School in Dibrugarh district. Pursuant ther eto, Secretary, Primary Education Board, Karbi Anglong released the petitioner o n 23.01.1982 to enable him to join his new school. Thereafter, by order dated 12 .05.1989 issued by the Deputy Inspector of Schools, Tinsukia, service of the pet itioner was confirmed with effect from 10.07.1966 against a substantive post. Pe titioner retired from service on attaining the age of superannuation on 31.05.20 03. 4. After he retired, respondents took a decision to pay the petitioner his pension and other retirement dues by taking into account the service period rend ered in Dibrugarh district only. 5. ief as indicated above. 6. Aggrieved, the petitioner has filed the present petition seeking the rel On 17.12.2008, this Court passed the following order (cid:28)Heard Mr. Chauhan, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. Mishra, l : earned Standing Counsel, Education Department, Assam. Mr. Mishra has produced a written instruction(s) in the form of a letter dated 0 5.12.2008, issued by the Director, Elementary Education, Assam, Kahilipara, Guwa hati. The letter reveals that the stalemate is in view of an ongoing scrutiny of the petitioner’s claim for retrial benefits by taking into account the services rendered by him under the Primary Board Mikir Hills District Council Diphu (as it was then) for the period 10.07.1963 to 19.12.1981. The letter further disclos es that in the meantime some retrial benefits in the form of provisional gratuit y etc., have been released to the petitioner. Mr. Mishra has prayed for time to file a comprehensive affidavit. Mr. Chauhan submits that considering the fact that the petitioner had retired fr om service in 2003 and is passing his days in great financial distress some inte rim relief may be granted in the interest of justice. The Contents of the letter and the documents appended to the petition, prima fac ie, indicate that the petitioner had rendered his services under the State Govt. in the Education Department from the month of December, 1981 till his retiremen t on 20.05.2003 and that he had in the meantime been confirmed w.e.f. 10.07.1966 vide the order dated 1.05.1989 of the Deputy Inspector of Schools, Tinsukia. In the above view of the matter, pending final adjudication of the issues involv ed, it is provided that the concerned respondent authorities would cause necessa ry steps to be taken to quantify the amount of retrial benefits payable to him o n the basis of services rendered under the State from 1981 and release the same to him within a period of 6 (six) weeks from the date of receipt of the certifie d copy of this order. This arrangement has been made to enable the petitioner to get over the current financial crisis which confronts him and would abide by the final order that wou ld be passed in the writ petition. (cid:29) Learned counsel for the petitioner has placed on record a decision of th 7. is court dated 19.07.2006 passed in WP(C) No. 3267 of 2006 (Sri Khagendra Chandr a Dev Sharma Vs. The State of Assam & Others) (Annexure-K to the writ petition) and contends that in a case of similar nature, this court had directed that pens ion should be computed by taking into account the period of service rendered und er the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council. The order dated 19.07.2006 reads as und er:
Decision
(cid:28)The petitioner who retired as a school teacher in the month of December 2003 has approached this Court seeking a direction for counting his service ren dered under the then Mikir Hills now Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, during th e period 1966 to 1979 for the purposes of computation of his pension. The petit ioner, it may be noticed, had served under the District Council during the afore said period until, at this request, he was transferred to a school in Nagaon (pl ains District) in the year 1979. Thereafter, after rendering service up-to Decem ber 2003 he has superannuated. Having regard to the nature of the grievance expressed, this Court had required the learned Standing Counsel, Education to apprise the Court of the precise stan d of the Government in the matter. Pursuant to the said order the Director of El ementary Education, Govt. of Assam, has submitted a written note which has been placed before the Court. On due consideration of the note submitted by the Director of Elementary Educati on, it appears that there is no tangible or reasonable basis disclosed which wou ld warrant exclusion of the period of service rendered by the petitioner under t he District Council for the purpose of computation of his pension. In fact, apar t from the several correspondences exchanged in the matter without any final con clusion being reached till date, no other significant fact has been reflected in the note submitted by the Director so as to justify the exclusion of the afores aid period. On the contrary, in the note submitted by the Director there is a re ference to some other cases, which are similarly situated, where period of servi ce rendered under the District Council have been taken into account for computat ion of pension. In view of the above, I deem it appropriate to close this writ petition at the m otion stage by directing that pension of the petitioner will now be computed by taking into account the period of service rendered by him under the District Cou ncil and the entitlement of the petitioner to pension will be finalized by all c oncerned within a period of four months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order. This will dispose of the writ petition. The written instructions/ note placed before the Court by the learned Standing C ounsel, Education be kept as a part of the record of this case. (cid:29) 8. The present case stands on similar footing as that of the aforesaid writ petition. No affidavit has been filed by the respondents to dispute or to show any distinguishing feature in the present case. In such circumstances, the Court is of the view that a similar order is called for in this case as well. 9. Accordingly, the respondents, more particularly respondent Nos. 1, 2 & 3 , are directed to compute the pension and other retiral dues of the petitioner b y taking into account the period of service rendered by him under the earstwhile Mikir Hills district (now Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council) and thereafter, to finalise the pension of the petitioner within a period of 4 (four) months from t he date of receipt of a certified copy of this order. This disposes of the writ petition. 10.