K.S. PARAMESWARAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners have approached this Court, having lost their substantial source of income, the salary, on retirement, when the respondent University, their employer, kept them on an interminable wait for what is otherwise their legitimate right, the retirement benefits. For one reason or another, the delays, more often than not, occur in the matters of settling the terminal benefits of the superannuated staff, the respondent University being no exception. This case is yet another such example as to illustrate the plight of the retired employees.

(2.) BRIEFLY stated, the petitioners, as the records reveal, retired from service on attaining the age of superannuation in 2012 from Kerala Agricultural University, their employer. Despite the lapse of more than a year from the date of their retirement, so far, the terminal benefits of the first petitioner have not been settled. All the efforts before the authorities bearing no fruit, the petitioners have approached this Court by filing the present writ petition.

(3.) THE learned counsel for the petitioners has brought to my notice a judgment of this Court in W.P. (C) No. 27285/2014 and batch, disposed of on 20.02.2014, per a learned Single Judge, under identical circumstances. This Court, on that occasion, has observed that it is for the University to find out its own resources for payment of terminal benefits due to the retired employees, and that the University cannot deny payment of retiral benefits to its employees on the pretext of financial stringency. I am in respectful agreement with the said opinion.