IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.5134 of 2008 Ram Deo Singh, Son of Late Bankey Singh, Resident of Village + P.O.+P.S. – Dhanouti, Math, District – Siwan…………Petitioner Versus 1. The State Of Bihar. 2. The Director, Secondary Education, Govt. of Bihar Budh Marg, Patna. 3. The District Education Officer, Siwan. 4. The Head Master, K.M. High School, Dhanauti, P.O.+P.S. – Dhanauti Math, District – Siwan. 5. The Accountant General, Bihar, Patna, Virchand Patel Path, Patna, Distt. – Patna. 6. The District Provident Fund Officer, Siwan, Distt. – Siwan. …………. Respondents ---------------------------------- 3 22.09.2011 Heard Sri Bipin Bihari Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri Anirudh Mishra, learned AC to Government Pleader No. 13, who appears on behalf of the Respondent Nos. 1 to 4 & 6 and Sri L.P.K. Rajgrihar, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Respondent No. 5/Accountant General, Bihar, Patna. The petitioner, who retired while functioning as ‘Headmaster’ from K.N. High School, Dhanauti Math, under the District of Siwan, approached this court in the year 2008, with a prayer to direct the Respondents to pay full pension, gratuity, earned leave, P.F. and other retiral dues. Earlier, no counter affidavit was filed on behalf of the Respondent / State. However, an affidavit was filed on behalf of the Respondent No. 5/Accountant General, Bihar, Patna, in the month of July, 2008. It was indicated therein that the Human Resources Department vide letter no. 526 dated 09.04.2007 had communicated sanction for 90% provisional pension and 90% gratuity, and thereafter, authorization was issued by the Accountant General, 2 Bihar, Patna, vide Annexures- ‘B’ & ‘C’. Learned counsel for the petitioner admits that the petitioner is getting only 90% pension till date and remaining 10% of gratuity amount has also not been paid. Besides this, amount of GPF is still outstanding. In this month only, on 19th September, 2011, an affidavit was filed on behalf of the Respondent No. 3. On perusal of the counter affidavit it is evident that cryptic statement has been made in the counter affidavit which is clear from statement made in paragraph no. 4 of the counter affidavit, wherein, it has been stated that pension of the petitioner was sanctioned and same has been issued vide memo no. 781 dated 09.05.2007. The Respondent No. 3 has also brought on record the pension intimation memo issued by the Accountant General, Bihar, Patna vide memo no. 526 dated 09.04.2007. The Respondent /State has not clarified on oath as to whether the petitioner’s 100% pension was sanctioned or authorized but statement made in paragraph no. 4 of the counter affidavit of the Respondent No. 5 makes it clear that only 90% pension and gratuity was authorized. The Respondent No. 3 has further admitted in its affidavit that amount of GPF has not been paid till date and it was under process. In view of the affidavits filed on behalf of the State as well as the Accountant General, Bihar, Patna, fact emerges that till date the petitioner is not getting 100% pension. He has not received remaining 10% of the gratuity amount, nor the amount of GPF has been paid till date, whereas, the petitioner has made specific 3 statement in the writ petition that in the entire service career of the petitioner there were no complaints nor any adverse remark was made. In view of statement made in the writ petition, the court is of the opinion that there was no reason for delay in authorization of 100% pension, but due to the reasons best known to the Respondent- State authority delay has occurred, and even till date, aforesaid dues have not been cleared despite the fact that the petitioner retired in the year 2007 and we are in the year 2011. In view of the facts and circumstances, the writ petition stands allowed, directing the Respondent-State authority to immediately issue sanction order for full pension in favour of the petitioner as well as in respect of remaining 10% of the gratuity amount within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order. The court expects that the Respondent No. 5/Accountant General, Bihar, Patna, after receipt of the sanction order from the State authority will issue authorization within four weeks. So far amount of GPF is concerned, the Respondents, particularly the Respondent No. 6 /District Provident Fund Officer, Siwan, is directed to take all steps for payment of the said amount to the petitioner within a period of eight weeks from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order along with admissible statutory interest. Since without reason delay in authorizing 100% pension has occurred, the Court is of the opinion that while allowing the writ petition a cost should also be imposed 4 on the Respondent/State. Accordingly, a cost of Rs. 5,000/- is imposed on the State authority. The cost is required to be paid to the petitioner within eight weeks from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order. The Respondent/State will be at liberty to recover the amount of cost from the officer/employee responsible for delay in the matter. With above observations and directions, the writ petition stands allowed. Praful ( Rakesh Kumar, J.)