BANKEY BIHARI YADAV Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this writ application the petitioner, who retired in February, 1975 has prayed for the payment of his appropriate pension which has been denied to him for last 13 years. He has sought for a suitable direction to be issued to the respondents that while determining the appropriate pension, the period spent by him in training be counted and the scale of pay be given to him in the selection grade with effect from 1/4/1956. A further direction has been sought that his salary for the period June 1966 to September 1966 and 21/3/1968 to 21/11/1972 be paid and the respondents should not arbitrarily treat that period as spent on leave. It is rather unfortunate, that his grievances were kept pending before the Lokayukt for long 13 yeais without any appropriate decision. It was only on 17/6/1988 that a communication from the office of the Lokayukt was issued asking the petitioner to move again before the appropriate department for proper relief.

(2.) In the year 1948 the petitioner was appointed as a teacher in the Basic School. After the said appointment he was asked to undertake two years teacher's training course from the Bikram Basic Training School. He was paid a sum of Rs. 25 per month as stipend during the training period. After completion of the training, the petitioner, along with other teachers, was posted in different schools by the order of the District Inspector of Schools which is contained in Memo No. 2158-84 dated 12-4-1950. The petitioner was asked to join at Babhangawan Basic School. The said memo is contained in Annexure-1 The petitioner regularly worked as a teacher in different Basic Schools and while he was functioning as such at Ailaya Basic School he was promoted and given selection grade with effect from 1-4-1956 by the Regional Deputy Director of Education, Patna Division, Patna as per his order contained in memo No. 29 dated 31-2-1961. After completing the age of 58 years he retired from service on 27-2-1975 from the Government Basic School, Bimwa. His grievance is that for the period 9-6-1966 to 26-9-1966 and 21-3-1968 to 20-11-1972, he was not paid his salary. In the letter of the Director, Primary Education, addressed to the Joint Secretary, Bihar Vidhan Sabha, it was pointed out that the department had not yet taken any decision in respect of the payment of the arrears of the petitioner's salary. Till the date of retirement of the petitioner in February, 1975 no decision was taken regarding the payment of his due salary, the pension, and other dues. In this distress condition, the petitioner, in his petition filed in August, 1975, raised his grievances before the Loykayukt requesting him to take effective measures for the payment of his due salary and pension, etc. It appears that in August, 1975 the Secretary of the Lokayukt in his letter addressed to the Director (respondent No. 2) asked him to inform regarding the steps taken in regard to the payment of the salary, the pension and the gratuity, etc. to the petitioner. After series of correspondence between respondents 2 to 4 i. e. the Director Primary Education, District Education Officer, Special Officer-cum-Joint Secretary, Education Department and respondent No. 5, the Lokayukt, a provisional pension was however paid to the petitioner, which was 75% of the actual pension to which he was entitled. In so far as the payment of his salary for the period 23-4-1968 to 22-11-1972 was concerned, it was alleged that the petitioner was abssnt from duty and had filed a case in the Court of Muosif, Arrah, and, therefore, the dues were not paid.

(3.) The petitioner has firmly denied those allegations and has asserted that no case was ever filed by him in the Court of Munsif, Arrah. He was never absent from duty for the period mentioned above and he never applied for leave for the said period nor was he ever put under suspension during that period. In paragraphs 11 and 12 of the writ application, a categorical assertion ha' been made that while fixing his pension the scale of selection grade granted to him with effect from 1-4-1956 by the Regional Deputy Director, was not counted although the same had been so entered in his Service Book. He was sent for the teacher's training course by the department only after his due appointment as a teacher and during that period he was paid only a stipend of Rs. 25 per month. From the perusal of Annexures 6 and 7 it appears that the office of the Lokayukt impressed upon the Education authorities that the delay was rather unfortunate and due to the recalcitrated attitude of the department the same has been kept pending for more than seven years. In those letters, it was made clear that if no appropriate action is taken in the matter then the Lokayukt will be compelled to take suo motu action for the mismanagement as defined in the Bihar Lokayukt Act, 1973. It was only then that the department prepared the pension account without counting the period spent in training and without calculating the salary of the petitioner granted 10 him in the selection grade. The petitioner, therefore, filed a protest against the said arbitrary fixation of the pension by the department and the Lokayukt, thereafter, in his letter dated 9-6-1983 expressed displeasure over the malicious action of the District Education Officer, Bhojpur. The said letter is contained in Annexure-8. In another letter issued in the year 1984 addressed to the D.E.O , Bhojpur it was communicated to the D.E.O., which is contained in Annexure-9, that for the delay caused in the payment of the pension to the petitioner, the interest may be realised from the concerned officer and up-to-date report was again called for by the office of the-Lokayukt within a week since the matter was pending from 1975. The petitioner accepted the payment under protest and made a complaint to the office of the Lokayukt in October 1986 and by letter dated 4-11-1986 the Director (Respondent No. 4) was asked to send his comment. Finally, by letter dated 9-6-1988/17-6-1988 contained in Annexure-12 the petitioner was informed by the office of the Lokayukt that his file which WaS pending for the last 13 years raising grievances for the clearance of his salary and pension has been closed and the petitioner may move the concerned department for redress of his grievances. Thus, the petitioner was left without any relief and ultimately he approached this Court by this writ application seeking the reliefs as indicated above.