HON'BLE MR JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED AND HON'BLE MR JUSTICE G. BHAVANI PRASAD WRIT PETITION No. 8779 OF 2009 Between: The Engineer-in-Chief, Irrigation and CAD Department, Errum Manzil, Hyderabad and two others ..... PETITIONERS AND P. Seshagiri Rao Occ. Deputy Executive Engineer , Khammam and one another .....RESPONDENTS ORDER: (Per Hon'ble Sri Justice Ghulam Mohammed) This Writ Petition has been filed seeking a Writ of Certiorari calling for the records relating to orders dated 31.12.2008 passed in O.A.No. 2504 of 2004 by the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad and quash the same as arbitrary. By the impugned order dated 31.12.2008, the Tribunal directed the respondents to pay interest at 10% per annum on the arrears of provisional pension from the date of stopping till the date of payment. The respondents are further directed to pay interest at the rate of 10% on the arrears of full pension and gratuity from the date of G.O.Rt.No. 333, Irrigation & CAD (CAD Services-II-I) Department, dated 24.3.2004 on which date the proceedings were dropped against him till the date of payment. It further directed that the said exercise shall be completed within eight weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of the order. Brief facts of the case are that the applicant-first respondent retired on 30.6.1999 on attaining the age of superannuation of 58 years as Deputy Executive Engineer in the Irrigation Department. It is stated that the competent authority instead of giving ‘No Due Certificate’ to get the pension and retiral benefits issued a memo dated 18.10.2001 asking the applicant to explain as to why certain articles were not handed over to the successor and there was shortage and missing of certain articles in the office of the Deputy Executive Engineer, Nagarjunasagar Canal, O& M Division No. 1, Tekulapally, Khammam District and a Charge Memo was also served on the applicant-first respondent in the month of September 2000. For that the applicant-first respondent filed a detailed explanation. As the allegations could not be established against the applicant-first respondent, the Government issued orders in G.O.Rt.No. 333, Irrigation & CAD (CAD Services-II-I) Department, dated 24.3.2004 dropping further action. It is stated that originally anticipation pension was sanctioned and the same was stopped from July 2002 and after that provisional pension was not paid and gratuity is not released. Therefore, the applicant-first respondent filed O.A and the Tribunal allowed the O.A. The relevant portion reads as under: “Therefore, the O.A is allowed in part. The respondents are directed to fix the commutation value of the pension of the applicant without direct him to undergo the Medical Examination, as he has submitted his application within one year as contemplated under G.O.Ms.No. 239, Finance and Planning (FW.PEN.I) Department, dated 13.9.1982 and fix the same in accordance with G.O.Ms.No. 239 within a period of eight weeks from the date of receipt of this order and pay the same. The respondents are directed to pay interest @ 10% per annum on the arrears of provisional pension from the date of stopping till the date of payment. The respondents are further directed to pay interest @ 10% on the arrears of full pension and gratuity from the date of G.O.Rt No. 333, Irrigation & CAD (CAD Services0II-1) Department, dated 24.3.2004 on which date the proceedings were dropped against him till the date of payment. This exercise shall be completed within eight weeks from the date of receipt of this order. VMA stands disposed of.” Aggrieved by the same, the present Writ Petition has been filed. The learned Government Pleader for Services –II vehemently contended that the applicant-first respondent has retired from service on 30.6.1999 on attaining the age of superannuation. It is also stated that the applicant-first respondent submitted a letter on 26.10.1999 stating that he has handed over the charge of Assistant Engineer to his successor Sri Srinivasa Reddy, Assistant Executive Engineer and also submitted the charge list and in that it was found that lot of articles were not at all accounted for in the T&P Register leading to confusion and chaos. He also submitted that Tools and Plant Registers were updated during October, 2001. The deputy Executive Engineer of O&M Sub-Division No. 1 has addressed a letter to the respondent on 18.10.2001 informing him about the shortages and he sent his explanation only for certain items and has not made any efforts to explain about the shortage of nearly 221 items costing several lakhs of rupees and he finally in January 2007 remitted an amount of Rs. 1,07,138/- towards cost of missing T & P articles in to Government account and his pensionary benefits were released during October 2008 after the ‘No Dues Certificate” was issued by the department. Therefore, no interest is payable on pension and the provisional pension and retirement gratuity by the Government and accordingly, the orders passed in O.A are liable to be set aside. On the other hand, the learned counsel appearing for the applicant-first respondent submitted that in order to release the pension and retiral benefits ‘No Due Certificate’ was not issued by the competent authority but a Memo dated 18.10.2001 was issued asking the applicant to explain the shortage of certain articles. He also submits that the applicant finally remitted an amount of Rs. 1,07,138/- towards cost of missing Tools and Plants for no fault of him and therefore, the Tribunal rightly directed the petitioners herein to pay interest @ 10% per annum on the arrears of provisional pension from the date of stopping till the date of payment and further directed to pay interest @ 10% on the arrears of full pension and gratuity from the date of G.O.Rt.No. 333 dated 24.3.2004, on which date the proceedings were dropped against him, till the date of payment. Hence there are no grounds to interfere with the order passed by the Tribunal and the Writ Petition is liable to be dismissed. We have heard the learned counsel appearing for both sides and perused the entire material made available on record. As seen from the record, The Chief Engineer-in Chief , Head of the Department has recommended to the Accountant General Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad for sanction of pension and gratuity on production of No Dues/No Charges Certificate from the officer where the Government Employee had worked for the last four years from his date of retirement. The Executive Engineer, Monitoring Division has requested to furnish the ‘No Dues Certificate’ for the period working in the Division. But for the following three reasons ‘No Dues Certificate’ was not furnished in this particular case, which read as under: “1. Non handing over of T& P (List enclosed) 2. Non handing over of M. Books, L.F Books pertaining to Venkatayapalem Deep cut which is a very important work, and 7’F Accounts etc., (List enclosed) 3. Charges pending against him (Framed vide G.O.936, dated 3.5.2002) With regard to Item No. 1 The Value of missing T&P was worked out with local market value for Rs. 1,07,138/- and informed the applicant through Lr.No. A.1/T&P/06-7/1151’M, dated 15.12.2006 to remit the amount and he has remitted it on 03.01.2007. Hence, the item No. 1 regularized. With regard to Item No. 2 the applicant-first respondent submitted a representation on 18.3.2008 to writ off the missing M. Books and L.F Books etc. The same was submitted to the Superintending Engineer, NSLBC O & M Circle, Tekulapally vide this office Lr.No. EC- II/P.S/Dy.EE (Rtd)/176’SE, dt 26.3.2008 and the Superintending Engineer have issued Writ off orders vide proceedings No. EC. 1/782’S, dt 25.4.2008. With regard to item No. 2 charges pending against the applicant- first respondent were already dropped vide G.O. No. 333 dated 24.3.2004. Be that as it may, in the Circular Memo No. 37989- A/494/A.2/Pen.1/98 dated 21.4.1999, issued by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, Finance and Planning (FW:PEN.1) Department, a detailed procedure for processing of pension papers was prescribed and appended to A.P. Revised Pension Rules, 1980 as Appendix-I for payment of Retirement Gratuity and Pension in time without any delay. The relevant portion reads as under: “ If any delay is anticipated in sanctioning final pension due to unavoidable reasons, anticipatory pension shall have to be paid by the Head of the office to the retire of the last drawn emoluments, countable for pension, if the Government Employee puts in 33 yeas of Qualifying Service, if not proportionately, under Rule 51-(1) of Revised Pension Rules, 1980, same is the se of gratuity also as 80% of the amount worked out by Department shall be paid as Anticipatory Gratuity under Rule 51 B of the R.P. Rs. 1980. This can be sanctioned even without waiting for the forwarding of pension papers to the Audit Officers.” In view of the above, the Tribunal has rightly directed the respondents therein to fix the Commutation value of the pension of the applicant without directing him to undergo the Medical Examination, as he has submitted hi application within one year as contemplated under G.O.Ms.No. 239 Finance and Planning (FW.PEN.I) Department dated 13.9.1982 and fix the same in accordance with G.O.Ms.No. 239 within eight weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of the order. With regard to second portion of the order of the Tribunal is concerned, the learned Government Pleader vehemently contended that the Tribunal erred in directing the authorities to pay interest @ 10% per annum on the arrears of provisional pension also on the arrears of full pension and gratuity from the date of G.O.Rt.No. 333, Irrigation & CAD (CAD Services-II-1) Department, dated 24.3.2004 on which date the proceedings were dropped against him till the date of payment. In our considered opinion with regard to second potion, the Tribunal has exceeded its limit by directing so and thus committed jurisdictional error. Therefore, interest granted by the Tribunal @ 10% is reduced to 4.5% per annum for a period of one year and @ 5% per annum beyond one year from the date of delay till the date of payment as per the Circular Memo No. 16077/135/A.2/Pen.I/2004 dated 20.2.2006 issued by the Government of Andhra Pradesh Finance (Pension-I) Department for settlement of pensionary benefits in time, avoiding payment of penal interest in case of delay and rate of interest. Accordingly, the Writ Petition is disposed of and the second portion of the order of the Tribunal is modified as indicated above and the authorities are directed to complete the exercise within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. There shall be no order as to costs. _______________________ GHULAM MOHAMMED, J _________________________ G. BHAVANI PRASAD, J DATE: 07.06.2010 KA ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1. 2 CD copies.