A KRISHNAN Vs. COMMISSIONER OF MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION CHENNAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner has initially filed O. A. No. 965 of 2003 on the file of the Tamil Nadu Administrative Tribunal, challenging the order of the third respondent dated 31.3.2001 with regard to the conditions imposed therein and the same has been transferred to the file of this Court and re-numbered as.

(2.) THE facts necessary for the disposal of the writ petition are that the petitioner was appointed as Junior Assistant in the municipal service in the year 1966 and he reached the age of superannuation on 31.3.2001. On reaching the age of superannuation by order of the Commissioner of Pollachi Municipality, dated 31.3.2001, the petitioner was permitted to retire, subject to two conditions that the time barred arrears for which the petitioner is responsible as a Revenue Officer to the tune of Rs. 8,853/- is to be withheld either from his DCRG or from his leave salary. THE second condition is without prejudice to the disciplinary proceedings initiated in the charge memo dated 4.1.2001 issued in ref. No. 9024/2000/C1, petitioner is permitted to retire. Challenging this, the petitioner filed O. A. No. 965 of 2003 on the file of the Tamil Nadu Administrative Tribunal and the same was transferred to this Court and renumbered as writ petition.

(3.) EVEN for this, no further steps have been taken by the municipality even after the lapse of 6 years. After serving for more than 25 years, based on these two issues DCRG has not been settled to the petitioner, which in my opinion is unsustainable. Because of the delay on the part of the respondents and for no fault of the petitioner, the petitioner cannot be forced to wait for the payment of retirement benefits for more than 6 years which in my opinion defeats the very purpose of the payment of terminal benefits, the object of which is to enable the retired person to have a proper standard of living after retirement. Hence, in my opinion a direction to the respondents to pass final orders in the disciplinary proceedings initiated in pursuance of the charge memo dated 4.1.2002 within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order, will meet the ends of justice. If any failure on the part of the respondents to pass final orders within the stipulated time, withholding the amount which according to the Department is a loss, relating to the second condition, the balance amount has to be released to the petitioner on the completion of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.