The Madras High Court Bench in Madurai has imposed a cost of Rs. 15,000 on an Executive Officer of a town panchayat for having delayed the submission of service particulars of a retired employee to the Assistant Director of Local Fund Audit for grant of pension and other emoluments.
Justice Vinod Kumar Sharma ordered that the individual who held the post of Executive Officer of Peraiyur town panchayat in Madurai district during January last year must pay the costs to the writ petitioner T. Selvaraj who took voluntary retirement from the local body in April, 2010.
The judge pointed out that the petitioner had joined Andipatti town panchayat in Theni district as a watchman in 1975 and served there till 1989. Thereafter, he was transferred to Avaniapuram town panchayat in Madurai district and again to Peraiyur town panchayat in December, 2002.
His plea for voluntary retirement was accepted in 2010 and the service records were forwarded to the Local Fund Audit office which raised certain queries in January last year. But the Executive Officer did not reply to the questions for long and hence the present writ petition.
“From the averments made in the affidavit filed in support this writ petition, it is proved that the Executive Officer, without any excuse, has failed to forward the necessary particulars and thus failed to perform his statutory obligation in sending the requisite papers for grant of regular pension to the petitioner. The inaction of the Executive Officer, on the face of it, is arbitrary and thus hit by Article 14 (right to equal protection of laws) of the Constitution and amounts to colourable exercise of power. The conduct of the officer shows that the petitioner has been unnecessarily harassed,” the judge said.
Though the incumbent officer, in his counter affidavit before the court, stated that the requisite documents had now been forwarded to the Local Fund Audit office, the judge said that it could not be a reason to condone the unexplained delay caused.
Allowing the writ petition, the judge ordered the officials concerned to disburse the monetary benefits, to which the petitioner was entitled to, within a month and to recover the costs of the present litigation, determined to be Rs. 15,000, from the individual concerned.
