BUDHINDRA NATH BARUAH Vs. ASSAM STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE matter relates to fixation of cut-off date for payment of Death-cum-Retirement Gratuity (hereinafter referred to as DCRG) to the employees of the Assam State Electricity Board (hereinafter referred to as ASEB). As per the impugned Office Memorandum dated 28.5.2005, the said cut-off date is 05.08.2004, which is not conducive to the petitioners, who have retired from service on attaining the age of superannuation on 31.3.2003, 31.3.2003, 31.12.2001, 28.2.2002 and 30.4.2004 respectively. For a ready reference, the impugned Annexure-E OM dated 28.5.2005 is quoted below :-

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioners, the State Govt. having had control over ASEB and the ASEB having followed the guidelines issued by the Govt. of Assam from time to time, the cut-off date fixed by the State Govt. which is 26.03.2001, should have been followed and / or adopted by the ASEB instead of introducing altogether a different cut-off date i.e. 5.8.04 and thereby depriving the petitioners from the enhanced rate of DCRG, which was raised from Rs. 2 lakhs to Rs. 3.5 lakhs. As per Annexure-A OM dated 5.9.2001 issued by the Govt. of Assam in the Public Grievances Department, the provisions contained in para 9 of the particular OM dated 19.11.98 issued under Assam Service (pension) Rules, 1969, stood revised to the extent of raising the existing limit of Rs. 2 lakhs to Rs. 3.5 lakhs in respect of DCRG. In the increase was made effective from 26.3.2001.

(3.) DEATH-cum-Retirement-Gratuity : With due consideration of the recommendation of the Pay Committee 1997 the Board is pleased to lay down the principles that DEATH-cum-Retirement Gratuity of an employee should be calculated on the basis of last pay drawn with the dearness allowance admissible thereon. The Board is also pleased to raise the maximum limit of admissible DEATH-cum-Retirement Gratuity to a Board employee from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 2 lakhs with effect from 1.4.97. At the same time, it is also laid down that in such matters, Board should be guided by the DEATH-cum-Retirement Gratuity Rules of the Govt. of Assam. 5. The respondents have also referred to the decision of this Court in WP(C) No. 7061/2003 (Girindra Nath Neog Vs. The ASEB and others), a copy of which has been annexed as Annexure-10 to the counter affidavit. The judgement in the said case was delivered on 24.5.2006. As in the instant case, in the said case also, the grievance of the petitioner was in respect of the rate of DCRG. The claim of the petitioner was that since the rate was enhanced to Rs. 3.5 lakhs from Rs. 2 lakhs, he was also entitled to the same, more particularly, in view of the of the Annexure-A OM dated 5.9.2001 and Annexure-F OM dated 28.4.99. The writ petition was dismissed by the aforesaid judgement holding that Clause-5 of the OM quoted above can, in no way, be read to mean that the enhancement of DCRG of the State Govt. employees would, automatically, apply to the employees of the ASEB. It was further held that the said OM did not divest the ASEB of its power to take a decision as regards the rate at which the ASEB would pay the DCRG to its employees, though in terms of the OM dated 28.4.99, it did undertake to be guided, in such matters, by the rules of the State Government.