Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 8: The High Court has held that delay to decide the request of voluntary retirement by an employee cannot deprive him from pensionary benefits after retirement.
The Division Bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar said the non-decision on Voluntary Retirement request cannot deprive and take away the right of pensionary benefits of an employee after he retires from the service.
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This has been held by the bench to the plea of an employee of the Agriculture Department. The employee had submitted an application on 15.01.2010 for Voluntary Retirement (VRS) with effect from 01.02.2010. However, his request remained pending with the department for a long period, and no decision was taken. Till such time the employee attained the age of superannuation on 31.03.2020. His pensionary and retiral benefits were not released due to non-finalization of his VRS request.
Aggrieved of the decision by the authorities, he approached the court of law and his plea was allowed with the direction to the authorities to forward his case to the Principal Accountant General for grant of pensionary benefits to ensure smooth processing of his pensionary benefits.
The authorities have challenged the said decision before the High Court on the ground that the court below has erroneously and without any justification directed the petitioner-department to condone the unauthorized absence of the respondent-employee w.e.f. 15.01.2010 till 31.03.2020 (retirement) so as to enable the him to avail the pensionary benefits admissible to him under law.
The court said the aggrieved employee was in service and should be treated to be in service till 20.10.2008. The unauthorized absence from 21.10.2008 till the date of superannuation of the respondent i.e. 31.03.2020 is sought to be justified by the respondent on the ground that he had already applied for Voluntary Retirement. “Therefore, the respondent was well within his right to assume that the same had been accepted and, therefore, did not attend his duties”, the court said.
The court observed that the negligence and indolence exhibited by the petitioner-department cannot be ignored and lightly brushed aside as the employee took benefit of the indecisiveness shown by the department and thought of not attending the duties.
“The lapse on the part of the department cannot deprive the employee of his pensionary benefits for the service he had rendered and directed to process and release the pensionary benefits to the respondent-employee within two months, and the Principal Accountant General was instructed to ensure disbursement of pension within the same period”, the court concluded.
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