Allahabad High Court
Dr. Nirmala Yadav vs State Of U.P. Thru. Its Prin. Secy. ... on 26 April, 2023
Bench: Pankaj Bhatia
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH
?Court No. - 17
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 8816 of 2022
Petitioner :- Dr. Nirmala Yadav
Respondent :- State Of U.P. Thru. Its Prin. Secy. (Higher Edu.) Lko. And Others
Counsel for Petitioner :- Amol Dixit,Ajay Pratap Singh
Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Gibran Akhtar Khan
Hon'ble Pankaj Bhatia,J.
1. Heard.
2. Instant writ petition has been filed praying for a Mandamus commanding the respondents to pay the penal interest @14% to the petitioner from 01.07.2019 to date of actual payment i.e. 24.05.2021 on the General Provident Fund. It is contended that subsequent to filing of the writ petition, the GPF has been paid to the petitioner on 09.10.2014.
3. Learned counsel for the petitioner states that as the payment has been made but has been made belatedly consequently, the respondents be directed to pay the interest on the GPF amount.
4.For the purpose of grant of interest the Court may have to consider the brief facts of the case which are being set forth below.
5.The contention of learned counsel for the petitioner is that the petitioner retired on attaining the age of superannuation in the month of February 2019. Though, the petitioner was entitled for payment of GPF amount, the same was not paid which compelled the petitioner to file the writ petition No.1179 of 2021 (SS). It is only after filing of the writ petition that the respondents have made the payment on 24.05.2021.
6. In this regard, learned counsel for the petitioner has invited the attention of the Court towards the Division Bench judgment of this Court in the case of Shiv Shakar Mishra Vs. State of U.P and Ors passed in Special Appeal (Defective) No. 10 of 2015 decided on 15.01.2015 wherein a Division Bench of this Court has granted interest at the rate of nine percent per annum on the delayed payment of retiral dues.
7.For the sake of convenience, the relevant observations of the Division Bench of this Court in the case of Shiv Shankar Mishra (supra) are reproduced below:-
"In the case of State of Kerala Vs M Padmanabhan Nair and Som Prakash1, the Supreme Court held as follows:
"Pension and gratuity are no longer any bounty to be distributed by the Government to its employees on their retirement but have become, under the decisions of this Court, valuable rights and property in their hands and any culpable delay in settlement and disbursement thereof must be visited with the penalty of payment of interest at the current market rate till actual payment."
In a more recent decision in D D Tewari Vs Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd2, the Supreme Court observed that any culpable delay in settlement and disbursement thereof is to be visited with penalty of payment of interest. Hence, interest @ 9% on delayed payment was awarded to be paid within six weeks failing which interest @ 18% p.a. would need to be paid. An erroneous withholding of gratuity amount to which the employee is legally entitled, entails penalty on the delayed payment.
We, therefore, have come to the conclusion that the learned Single Judge was not justified in declining the prayer for the payment of interest. Insofar as the payment which was made to the appellant on 18 March 2014 is concerned, the appellant was clearly entitled to the payment of interest from the date of the filing of the writ petition in 2010 (Writ -A No. 47141 of 2010). The appellant would also be entitled to the payment of interest on the pensionary payment which was unlawfully withheld from March 2014 until actual payment is made. We direct that interest shall be admissible to the appellant at the rate of 9% per annum from the date on which the respective payments on account of arrears of salary, or as the case may be, towards pensionary dues became due and payable as directed earlier. Interest shall be computed in terms of the aforesaid directions within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order. The order of the learned Single Judge declining interest shall to that extent stand set aside and be substituted by the aforesaid directions.
The appeal is, accordingly, disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs."
8. Learned counsel for the respondents is unable to persuade the Court to take a different view with regard to payment of interest than that taken by the Division Bench of this Court in the case of Shiv Shanker Mishra (supra).
9. Accordingly, considering the judgment of this Court in the case of Shiv Shankar Mishra (supra) and admittedly the payment of retiral dues having been belatedly to the petitioner, the writ petition is disposed of with the direction to the respondents to make payment of interest at the rate of nine percent per annum from the date the said payment became due i.e 01.07.2019 till the date of actual payment i.e 24.05.2021.
10.Let such payment be made within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order.
Order Date :- 26.4.2023
VNP/-
