DR. B.C. BANSAL Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Dr. B.C. Bansal, who retired from Government service as Professor of Medicine and Head of the Neurology Division, Medical College, Rohtak on 2.11.1989 has moved this Court for grant of interest on the delayed payment of his retiral benefits.

(2.) According to the petitioner, the amounts due were paid to him only after 8.4.1992 i.e. the pension was paid on 8.4.1992; while the commuted pension was deposited in his bank account on 22.4.1992. The amount of Rs. 99,000/- payable towards gratuity was not released until 10.8.1992 on which date he was paid a sum of Rs. 87,000/- after deducting Rs. 12,000/- on account of penal/market rent of Rs. 11,733.75 chargeable from him for overstaying in the premises allotted to him by the respondents. He submits that he is entitled to receive penal interest on the delayed payment of his retiral benefits, as per the law settled by judicial precedents.

(3.) In the reply filed by the respondents, the delay in the payment of Gratuity was justified on account of the failure of the petitioner to produce a No Due Certificate within time. According to the respondents, the petitioner vide letter dated 12.11.1989 had requested for sanction and payment of the provisional pension and gratuity by due date and he had been informed that the same can only be sanctioned after final report from the office of the Accountant General, Haryana and in the absence of final No Due Certificate, these benefits could not be released.