Retnamma vs The Village Officer
2021 Latest Caselaw 21599 Ker

                IN THE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM
                                PRESENT
              THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE P.V.KUNHIKRISHNAN
    TUESDAY, THE 2ND DAY OF NOVEMBER 2021 / 11TH KARTHIKA, 1943
                        WP(C) NO. 13706 OF 2021
PETITIONER:

          RETNAMMA,
          AGED 78 YEARS
          W/O. PADMANABHAN, RESIDING AT ULLADAMTHARA, EZHUPUNNA
          SOUTH P.O. CHERTHALA, pin - 688 537.

          BY ADV N.BHARAT



RESPONDENTS:

    1     THE VILLAGE OFFICER,
          KODAMTHURUTH VILLAGE, KUTHIYATHODU P.O.,
          CHERTHALA, pin - 688 533.

    2     THE TAHSILDAR,
          TALUK OFFICE, CHERTHALA, pin - 688 524.

    3     THE SECRETARY,
          KODAMTHURUTH PANCHAYATH, P.O. CHERTHALA,
          ALAPPUZHA DISTRICT - 688 533.

    4     THE DISTRICT COLLECTOR,
          COLLECOTRATE, ALAPPUZHA 688 001.

          BY ADVS.
          SRI.R.RAJASEKHARAN PILLAI
          SMT.SABINA JAYAN


          SMT.DEEPA NARAYANAN, SR.GP




     THIS WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) HAVING COME UP FOR ADMISSION ON
02.11.2021, THE COURT ON THE SAME DAY DELIVERED THE FOLLOWING:
 WP(C) NO.13706/2021
                                         2



                   P.V.KUNHIKRISHNAN, J
             -------------------------------
                 W.P.(C)No.13706 of 2021
            --------------------------------
      Dated this the 02nd day of November 2021



                                JUDGMENT

The above writ petition is filed with

following prayers:

"(i) To issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction directing the respondents to disburse to the petitioner's Bank account as furnished by her to the respondents the relief fund amount she is entitled to on the basis of Ext.P2 list;

ii) To issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction directing the 4th respondent, District Collector to conduct an enquiry as to why the amount the petitioner was eligible for was not disbursed to her.

(iii) To issue such other further reliefs as this Honourable Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of this case."

2. The petitioner is a resident of ward

No.3 in Kodamthuruth Grama Panchayath. It is

the case of the petitioner that the small

building in which she is residing along with her

son was almost completely damaged in the floods WP(C) NO.13706/2021

of the year 2018. An application was submitted

seeking disbursement of relief amount and the

petitioner was listed as a person eligible for

such relief as per Ext.P2 list prepared by the

respondent Panchayath. However, the bank

account number shown against her name was not

correct and therefore the amount was not

credited to her account. The case of the

petitioner is that she immediately took steps to

give the correct bank account details, but there

was no action and hence this writ petition is

filed.

3. Heard the learned counsel for the

petitioner, the learned Government Pleader and

the learned Standing counsel for the 3rd

respondent.

4. The learned Government Pleader submitted

that the eligible amount is already disbursed to

the petitioner and a statement is also filed by

the Government Pleader. The Government Pleader

submitted that altogether an amount of WP(C) NO.13706/2021

Rs.10,000/- is disbursed to the petitioner which

includes an amount from SDRF(Rs.5,200/-)on

16.07.2021 and from CMDRF (Rs.4,800/-)on

23.07.2021. According to the learned government

pleader, the eligible full amount has been

disbursed to the petitioner from the office of

the 2nd respondent.

5. I considered the contentions of the

petitioner and the respondents. The main prayer

in the writ petition is to disburse the eligible

amount to the petitioner's account, as furnished

by her to the respondents, on the basis of

Ext.P2 list. Now the Government says that the

eligible amount is already disbursed. It will

be better to extract the relevant portion of the

statement filed by the Government Pleader:

"3. It is submitted that house damages applications are usually received in the office of the 2nd respondent Tahsildar through the Village Officer with the report of LSGD Technical staff. A letter No.C2-5630/2018 dated 16.05.2019 was received from the 3rd respondent which contained a list of 87 beneficiaries of Rebuild Kerala Scheme whose houses damaged upto 15%. In this list the petitioner's name was WP(C) NO.13706/2021

included as Serial No.43(not 13) where the damage is shown as 15%. The list was then submitted before the District Level Appeal Committee and the list was approved by the District Level Committee on 30.05.2019.

4. It is submitted that the petitioner's account details were incorrect as per the list and therefore amount was not disbursed on that time. The petitioner is eligible for an amount of Rs.10,000/-(Rs5,200/- from SDRF and Rs.4,800/- from CMDRF) as house damage relief as per G.O.(Rt)No.25/2019/DMD dated 23.08.2019. Due to the incorrect account details, the said amount was not disbursed to the petitioner.

5. It is respectfully submitted that now the amount of Rs.10,000/- is disbursed to the petitioner from SDRF(Rs.5,200/-) on 16.07.2021 and from CMDRF (Rs.4,800/-) on 23.07.2021 respectively. Therefore the eligible full amount has been disbursed to the petitioner from the office of the 2nd respondent."

6. From the above statement it is clear

that some amount is already disbursed to the

petitioner. According to the petitioner, she is

entitled more amount. If that is the case, the

petitioner is free to approach the respondents

with appropriate representation and if such a

representation with adequate data is received,

the official respondents will do the needful in WP(C) NO.13706/2021

accordance to law. There can be a time limit

also to consider such representation.

Therefore this writ petition is disposed of

in the following manner:

(i) The petitioner is free to approach

the 4th respondent with a representation

narrating her grievance and about the

entitlement of more amount within three weeks

from the date of receipt of a copy of this

judgment with sufficient data to prove her case.

(ii) If such a representation is

received, the 4th respondent will do the needful

in accordance to law, as expeditiously as

possible, at any rate, within one month from the

date of receipt of the representation.

Sd/-

P.V.KUNHIKRISHNAN JUDGE

DM WP(C) NO.13706/2021

APPENDIX OF WP(C) 13706/2021

PETITIONER EXHIBITS

EXHIBIT P1 TRUE COPY OF THE APPLICATION DATED 12.09.2018 SUBMITTED BY THE PETITIONER BEFORE THE 1ST RESPONDENT.

EXHIBIT P2 TRUE COPY OF THE LETTER OF THE 3RD RESPONDENT SECRETARY, KODAMTHURUTH PANCHAYATH, DATED 27.05.2019 ADDRESSED TO THE 2ND RESPONDENT TAHSILDAR.

EXHIBIT P3 TRUE COPY OF THE REPRESENTATION DATED 06.07.2020 SUBMITTED BY THE PETITIONER BEFORE THE 2ND RESPONDENT.

EXHIBIT P4        TRUE   COPY    OF   THE    REPLY  DATED
                  12.10.2020    ISSUED    BY    THE   2ND
                  RESPONDENT TAHSILDAR.

RESPONDENTS EXHIBITS: NIL




                      //TRUE COPY//

                       PA TO JUDGE