Kerala State Road Transport ... vs Pradeep D Nair
2025 Latest Caselaw 9618 Ker

Kerala High Court

Kerala State Road Transport ... vs Pradeep D Nair on 13 October, 2025

WA NO. 2412 OF 2025




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                         IN THE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM

                                          PRESENT

                THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE SUSHRUT ARVIND DHARMADHIKARI

                                              &

                        THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE SYAM KUMAR V.M.

                  MONDAY, THE 13TH DAY OF OCTOBER 2025 / 21ST ASWINA, 1947

                                     WA NO. 2412 OF 2025

           AGAINST THE JUDGMENT DATED 14.02.2025 IN WP(C) NO.41937 OF 2024 OF HIGH COURT OF

                                           KERALA


APPELLANT/S:

       1        KERALA STATE ROAD TRANSPORT CORPORATION
                REPRESENTED BY ITS CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR TRANSPORT BHAVAN,
                FORT, THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, PIN - 695023

       2        DISTRICT TRANSPORT OFFICER
                KERALA STATE ROAD TRANSPORT CORPORATION, VENJARAMOOD DEPOT,
                THIRUVANANTHAPURAM DISTRICT, PIN - 695602

                BY ADV SHRI.DEEPU THANKAN

RESPONDENT/S:

                PRADEEP D NAIR
                (INSPECTOR, RETIRED ON 31/05/2024), S/O.DEVARAJAN NAIR, SUDEEPAM,
                MANGALASSERY, MITHIRMALA PO, THIRUVANANTHAPURAM DISTRICT, PIN - 695610


       THIS WRIT APPEAL HAVING RESERVED ON 09.10.2025, THE COURT ON 13.10.2025 DELIVERED THE
FOLLOWING:
 WA NO. 2412 OF 2025




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                                    JUDGMENT

Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari, J.

Heard C.M. Application No.1 of 2025 for condonation of delay. The

appeal has been filed with a delay of 204 days. Having perused the

reasons stated in the affidavit filed in support of the application to

condone the delay, we are satisfied that sufficient cause has been made

out to condone the delay. Hence, delay is condoned, and the appeal is

heard finally.

2. The present intra-Court Appeal under Section 5 of the Kerala

High Court Act 1958 assails the judgment dated 14.02.2025 passed in

W.P.(C) No.41937/2024 whereby the learned Single Judge has finally

disposed of the writ petition with the direction to the first appellant to

disburse all retiral benefits of the respondent herein including gratuity,

provident fund, staff welfare fund, leave surrender within a period of six

months with statutory interest, if any.

3. The brief facts of the case are that the respondent is a retired

employee of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). He WA NO. 2412 OF 2025

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retired upon attaining the age of superannuation on 31.05.2024 from the

post of Vehicle Inspector. However, since the DCRG and other retiral

benefits were not paid, he approached this Court by filing a writ petition.

3.1 The learned Single Judge, while disposing of the writ petition,

concluded that the appellants had not disputed their statutory

obligation to pay the retiral dues and other benefits. Accordingly, the

writ petition was disposed of by granting six months' time to make the

payment.

4. Being aggrieved, the appellants/KSRTC have filed the present

writ appeal on the ground that, although the learned Single Judge was

right in disposing of the writ petition in favour of the respondent, the

learned Single Judge overlooked a vital aspect of the matter which was

duly raised in the counter affidavit filed by the appellant in the writ

petition.

4.1 In the counter affidavit, it was stated that KSRTC is the largest

establishment in the State, with 22,313 employees and approximately WA NO. 2412 OF 2025

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42,205 pensioners. KSRTC has been facing a severe financial crisis,

incurring recurring losses and, therefore, has been unable to meet its

necessary expenses for the past few years. According to the unaudited

financial report, the KSRTC incurs an annual loss of more than Rs. 1,314

crores. KSRTC's obligation to its pensioners amounts to approximately

Rs. 71 crores per annum.

4.2 The payment of terminal benefits to retired employees

constitutes the fourth largest expenditure of the KSRTC, after payments

for diesel, salaries, and interest on bank loans. Pensionary benefits are

disbursed to retired employees on a priority basis, in accordance with

the Pension Scheme approved by the Division Bench of this Court in W.A.

No. 611/2023. Since 2022, a total of 2,836 employees have retired from

KSRTC service, of whom the KSRTC has been able to pay terminal

benefits to only 930 pensioners. Terminal benefits such as DCRG, CVP,

and others remain unpaid to 1,906 retired employees.

5. In the normal course, KSRTC has been following the judgment WA NO. 2412 OF 2025

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dated 20.11.2002 of the Division Bench in W.A. No. 289/2001, wherein the

following directions were issued:

"1. The Corporation would earmark 10% of the daily collection for disbursement of retirement benefits to its employees and the said amount would be kept in a separate Treasury account or otherwise bearing maximum interest and retirement benefit due be disbursed from that fund.

2. Corporation shall not divert hereafter any contribution made by the existing employees towards provident fund for any other purpose without getting orders from this Court.

3. Corporation would file a periodical statement before this Court every month stating the amount lying in the account on the basis of the above direction and the amount disbursed.

4. Corporation would keep a register of district wise and also state wise and the amount would be disbursed to the pensioners strictly on the basis of the Statewise register kept by them. After disbursing the amount every month a statement would be filed before this Court.

5. The retirement benefits would be disbursed strictly on the basis of the date of retirement, unless otherwise ordered by the order of this Court.

6. A copy of this order shall be served on the Director of Treasuries. He shall ensure that no amount is drawn from the Account mentioned in direction (1) above, except for the purpose of disbursing pensionary claims. This Account shall not be subject to any attachment or treasury WA NO. 2412 OF 2025

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ban. The amounts in P.F. Account shall be utilized only for satisfying P.F. claims of existing/retired employees".

Since then, the KSRTC has been making the payments as per the

directions of the Division Bench.

6. The KSRTC filed Special Leave to Appeal (Civil) Nos. 448-

454/2002 against the order dated 29.11.2001 in W.A. No.3146/2001 and

connected cases, which was subsequently dismissed, and the order of the

Division Bench was confirmed.

7. In identical situation, other employees had filed W.P.(C)

No.32045/2022, which came to be decided on 11.10.2022, wherein the

KSRTC was directed to pay the eligible retiral benefits within a specified

period ranging from three to six months. When the directions in the

judgment were not complied with, the retired employees filed contempt

petitions. Virtually, as a defense to the same, KSRTC filed review

petitions, seeking at least two more years to honor the commitment,

citing solely a lack of resources. The grounds raised by KSRTC in those

review petitions were that granting the payment would cause injustice WA NO. 2412 OF 2025

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to several others who had retired prior to those employees and were still

awaiting their benefits.

7.1 The review petitions were disposed of vide order dated

16.02.2023 as follows:

"a) The KSRTC shall ensure that an amount of Rs.1 Lakh is paid TIGH C to all the eligible pensioners, including the writ petitioners, who retired up to 31.12.2022, within a period of 45 days from today.

b) The KSRTC shall restore the Corpus Fund as ordered by the learned Division Bench of this Court in Writ Appeal No.289/2001 and connected matters; and the first remittance to it, in the manner ordered in the said judgment, shall be made in April 2023.

c) The payments into the Corpus Fund will be continued thereafter every month without fail in the manner as ordered by the learned Division Bench.

d) On the amounts being remitted into the Corpus Fund, the KSRTC will begin disbursement of pensionary benefits to all the pensioners in priority of their dates of retirement, from April 2023; which shall be then completed without any avoidable delay.

e) Notwithstanding the afore, if any of the writ petitioners or pensioners are in emergent requirement of their pensionary benefits or a portion thereof - either for marriage/medical expenses of their family, or in case of any distress notice/action they receive or are subjected to on account WA NO. 2412 OF 2025

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of loan liability, or any other compelling reasons - they will be entitled to move the Managing Director of the KSRTC with an apposite representation; in which event, same shall be honoured to the extent possible, within a period of two weeks thereafter, without following the order of priority. However, while doing so, the bonafides and validity of the request must be looked into by the Managing Director appropriately."

8. Aggrieved, KSRTC had preferred W.A. No.611/2023 and other

connected appeals. This Court vide judgment dated 13.08.2025 disposed

of the writ appeals by passing the following directions:

"10. Accordingly taking into consideration the facts and circumstances of the case, we dispose of these writ appeals with the following directions to the appellants:

(a) The appellants are directed to verify whether all the respondents have been paid their retiral benefits, i.e., DCRG, CVP, monthly pension, or not. If anyone has been left out, the said payment shall be made to them positively within three months.

(b) So far as the Terminal Leave Surrender Salary is concerned, the appellants shall make the entire outstanding payment to the respondents herein as expeditiously as possible, preferably within three months from the date of receipt of certified copy of this judgment.

c) So far as the question of earmarking some percentage of daily WA NO. 2412 OF 2025

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collection towards the corpus fund is concerned, the same is left open to be considered in appropriate proceedings, in accordance with law."

9. The learned Standing Counsel for KSRTC contended that in

the cases referred to above, the appellants had already paid the benefits

to the applicants, except for some who were left out. Therefore, the

appellants undertook to make the payments to the remaining

employees, which was not a substantial amount. The directions of the

learned Single Judge in the present case, without considering the order

passed by the Division Bench earlier in W.A. No. 289/2001 dated

20.11.2002, would break the chain of seniority. This would result in the

present respondent receiving the payment out of turn, thereby

disadvantaging employees who retired much earlier. Therefore, in such

a situation, the judgment passed in W.A. No. 289/2001 and the order in

R.P. No. 1131/2022 should be taken into consideration, and the

impugned judgment be modified to the extent that the retiral dues are

paid strictly in accordance with the seniority list as laid down by the WA NO. 2412 OF 2025

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Division Bench.

10. Heard Mr Deepu Thankan learned Standing Counsel for the

Kerala State Road Transport Corporation.

11. In the judgment dated 20.11.2002 in W.A. No. 289/2001,

certain directions were issued by treating the writ appeal as a Public

Interest Litigation (PIL). The writ appeal was filed by approximately 17

employees; however, this does not mean that the benefit is to be

extended to all employees. In fact, if it is not treated as a PIL, then the

benefit should be extended only to those applicants who have

approached this Court.

11.1 We do not concur with the findings of the Coordinate Bench

of this Court in W.A. No. 289/2001, as the respondent herein was not a

party to the earlier proceedings. He retired subsequently, approximately

22 years after the judgment in W.A. No. 289/2001. Therefore, we are of

the view that the directions issued in 2002 cannot be made applicable to

the respondent who retired in 2024. In the present case, only one WA NO. 2412 OF 2025

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employee is before us. Hence, it would be improper to modify the

judgment passed by the learned Single Judge, especially in view of the

financial crisis faced by the KSRTC.

11.2 It is an admitted fact that the respondent-employee retired in

2024 upon attaining the age of superannuation, without any blemish on

his service record. As per the rules of the KSRTC, an employee is entitled

to receive all retiral benefits on the date of retirement. However, in the

present case, more than a year have passed since the respondent's

retirement, yet he has not received his retiral dues and has been

compelled to run from pillar to post to secure them.

12. In such circumstances, we are unable to agree with the

directions issued by the Division Bench in the year 2002 and are of the

considered view that the same cannot be made applicable to the present

case. Since only one employee has approached this Court, we confine our

order to the case of the present respondent alone.

12.1 Accordingly, we direct the appellants to release the retiral WA NO. 2412 OF 2025

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dues payable to the respondent, as directed by the learned Single Judge,

within a period of two months from today.

With the aforementioned directions, the writ appeal is dismissed

in limine.

Sd/-

SUSHRUT ARVIND DHARMADHIKARI JUDGE

Sd/-

SYAM KUMAR V.M. JUDGE jjj WA NO. 2412 OF 2025

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PETITIONER ANNEXURES

Annexure A1 TRUE COPY OF THE JUDGMENT IN WA 289 OF 2001 DATED 20/11/2002 Annexure A2 TRUE COPY OF THE INTERIM ORDER OF THE HON'BLE SUPREME COURT IN CA NO. 448-454/2002 DATED 29/08/2002 Annexure A3 TRUE COPY OF THE ORDER IN RP NO. 1131/2022 DATED 16/02/2023 Annexure A4 TRUE COPY OF THE JUDGMENT PASSED BY THE DIVISION BENCH IN WA 611/2023 DATED 13/08/2025