IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.12058 of 2008 Date of decision : 16-07-2008 Haryana Co-operative Sugar Mills Ltd. .....Petitioner Dy. Labour Commissioner-cum-Appellate Authority under the Payment of Gratuity Act,1972 at Panipat and others. .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE NIRMALJIT KAUR Present : Mr. Ramesh Chahal, Advocate for the petitioner. **** NIRMALJIT KAUR, J. The petitioner has filed the present Writ Petition, challenging the order dated 28-08-2007 vide which, respondent No.2 directed the petitioner-Mill to pay Rs.33,309/- along with 9% interest per annum, which comes to Rs.20,468/- and also the order dated 29-05-2008, vide which, the Appellate Authority has dismissed the appeal of the petitioner against the order dated 28-08-2007. The petitioner has challenged these two orders, on the ground, that the petitioner had never refused to pay the amount of gratuity to respondent No.3. Rather, he never came to receive the same. Further, the entire amount of gratuity was paid vide voucher dated 09-01-2003 and the interest could not have been awarded after the receipt of the amount on 09-01-2003 and it has been wrongly awarded upto 28-08-2007. Rs.33,309/- was the amount which was deposited by the petitioner on his own. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner. The two orders have been perused by us. In fact, the findings of the Controlling Authority-respondent No.2 is that an amount of Rs.33,309/- was wrongly forfeited and adjusted Civil Writ Petition No.12058 of 2008 -2- against recovery in an illegal manner by the Management and in utter disregard of the Provisions of the Act. It was on account of this finding that the respondents directed the Management-petitioner to pay simple interest @ 9% p.a. on the balance amount of gratuity i.e. Rs.33,309/- from the date it became payable i.e. from 01-11-2000 to the date of its order i.e. 28-08-2007, which came to only Rs.20,468/-. The argument that respondent No.3 had himself deposited the amount of Rs.33,309/-, due to him, cannot be accepted as there is no evidence on the file that the respondent No.3 has ever issued any show cause notice or charge sheet for the recovery of aforesaid amount and nor he was awarded any sort of punishment which required the respondent to deposit the amount. Thus, the question that the respondent himself deposited the amount of his own freewill, does not arise. The same only amounts to forfeiting the recovery of the gratuity illegally and arbitrarily. Thus, the interest @ 9% p.a. on the balance amount of gratuity of Rs.33,309/- when it stood recovered i.e. from 01-11-2000 to the date of the order dated 28-08-2007 has been rightly imposed. No other argument was raised by the counsel for the petitioner. The Writ Petition is, accordingly, dismissed with no order as to costs. (NIRMALJIT KAUR) JUDGE (ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA) JUDGE July 16,2008 gurpreet