C.K. KUTTYKRISHNAN NAIR Vs. JOINT REGISTRAR(GENERAL)

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, who was an employee of the 2nd respondent Co-operative Bank retired from service on 31.12.2007, on attaining the age of superannuation, while working as Assistant General Manager, after rendering a total service of 36 years. The petitioner has filed this writ petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India, seeking a writ of mandamus commanding the respondents to disburse forthwith a sum of Rs. 2,84,022.00 towards balance gratuity payable, in excess of the amount received by the 2nd respondent Bank from the 3rd respondent Life Insurance Corporation (for brevity, 'LIC'), together with interest. The petitioner has also sought for a writ of mandamus commanding the 1st respondent Joint Registrar to consider and pass appropriate orders on Ext.P2 representation dated 2.5.2018, as early as possible, after affording him an opportunity of being heard.

(2.) The pleadings and materials on record would show that the liability to pay gratuity to the employees of the 2nd respondent Bank is covered by the Employees' Group Gratuity Assurance Scheme with the 3rd respondent LIC. In the case of the petitioner, at the time of his retirement, LIC paid a sum of Rs. 3,50,470.00 to the 2nd respondent Bank, towards the amount of gratuity payable to the petitioner, which is evident from Ext.P1 communication dated 7.1.2008. Out of the said amount, the 2nd respondent Bank paid a sum of Rs. 3,50,000.00 to the petitioner. The contention raised in this writ petition is that the total gratuity payable to the petitioner comes to Rs. 6,34,022.00(Rs.30,527x36x15/26) by counting his total length of service. Therefore, the higher amount of gratuity, in addition to Rs. 3,50,000.00 paid by the 2nd respondent Bank comes to Rs. 2,84,022.00.

(3.) The entitlement of the employees of the Cooperative Societies covered by the provisions under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, to receive better terms under Sec. 4(5) of the said Act, is now settled by the decision of the Full Bench of this Court in Chandrasekharan Nair G. and others Vs. Kerala State Cooperative Agricultural and Rural Development Bank Ltd. and others (2017 (4) KLT 276). Paragraphs 5 to 8 of the said decision read thus;