HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 32 Case :- WRIT - A No. - 3983 of 2023 Petitioner :- Somwati Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 5 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Ram Sanehi Yadav Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Chandan Agarwal Hon'ble Vikas Budhwar,J.
Heard Sri Ram Sanehi Yadav, learned counsel for the petitioner, learned Standing Counsel as well as Sri Akash Chandra Maurya holding brief of Sri Chandan Agarwal who appears for respondent Nos. 4, 5 and 6 Grievance of the petitioner is that the husband of writ petitioner namely Raghuraj Singh died-in-harness on 03.06.2001 while serving as Assistant Teacher in the Kannya Purwa Madhyamic Vidyalaya Sirsaul, Vikas Khand- Abhimpur, District- Badaun.
As per the writ petitioner all the retirement dues had been paid except death cum retirement gratuity. It has been argued that the only ground on which death cum retirement gratuity has been withheld is that the deceased did not exercise option of retiring at 60 years (earlier 58 years).
Learned counsel for the petitioner has invited the attention of the court towards the order dated 7.11.2019 passed in Writ A No.17399 of 2019, Usha Rani Vs. State of U.P. and others so as to contend that the said ground is not available to the respondents.
Learned counsel for the respondent Nos. 2 to 6 has submitted that they do not want to file their response and the law mandated by this Court in Usha Rani (Supra) stands applicable in the present case.
It is the further submission that in view of the Government Order dated 03.02.2023 now the State has himself taken a decision that they would not withhold gratuity on the said premise. Learned Standing Counsel as well as the counsel for the respondents, on the other hand have not disputed the applicability of the judgment in Usha Rani (Supra) case as well as the Government Order dated 03.02.2023. According to them since the matter is to be first decided at the first instance by the fifth respondent, District Basic Education Officer, Badaun, thus, the writ petition be disposed of requiring the writ petitioner to prefer a comprehensive representation before the concerned officer, District Basic Education Officer, Badaun.
Considering the submission of the rival parties the writ petition is disposed of with granting liberty to the writ petitioner to prefer a comprehensive representation before the fifth respondent who shall after receipt of the same proceed to decide within a period of six weeks from the date of production of the certified copy of the order. Before deciding the case of the writ petitioner, the entitlement of the writ petitioner and competing claims, if any, shall also be looked into.
With the aforesaid observations, the writ petition stands disposed of.
Needless to point out that this court has not adjudicated the matter on the merits.
Order Date :- 1.3.2023 Rajesh