RAM SARUP SEHGAL Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal against order of the learned Single Judge who dismissed Civil Writ Petition No. 1443/1986.

(2.) The appellant retired from the service of Municipal Committee, Ladwa, in the State of Haryana on 8th December, 1971. The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, was brought into force by the Central Government by a notification under section 1(4) of the Act with effect from 16th September, 1972.

(3.) The appellant has stated in the writ petition that he applied to the Municipal Committee, Ladwa, in the year 1972 itself for payment of gratuity as per the provisions of the Act but the same was declined on the ground that no gratuity was payable to the municipal employees in the State for the reason that the Municipal Committee was not an 'establishment' under the Act, and that in any case the Act was not applicable to the employees who retired before the Act was notified to have come into force. The appellant retired in the year 1971. He chose to file the writ petition in the year 1986 for the issuance of a writ of mandamus directing the Municipal Committee Ladwa to pay gratuity to him. The learned Judge who heard the case took note of the fact that the writ petition was filed after a period of nearly fifteen years, and that in any case the ratio of the judgment in Kundan Lal Narang v. The State of Haryana,1987 89 PunLR 431, was that persons who had retired from service after enforcement of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 were only entitled to the payment of gratuity in accordance with the provisions of the Act and in that view dismissed the writ petition.