Madras High Court
A.Thirunavukkarasu vs The Managing Director on 9 December, 2021
W.P.No.24446 of 2021
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
DATED:09.12.2021
Coram
The Hon'ble Mr. Justice V.PARTHIBAN
W.P.No.24446 of 2021
A.Thirunavukkarasu ...Petitioner
Vs.
1.The Managing Director,
Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation
(Villupuram Division),
Vallatha Reddy Post, Villupuram.
2.The Administrator,
Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation,
Employees' Pension Fund Trust,
Thiruvalluvar House,
Pallavan Salai, Chennai - 600 002.
...Respondents
PRAYER: Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India
praying to issue a writ of Mandamus directing the respondent to
consider the representations of the petitioner dated 26.03.2021 and
to pa interest at the rate of 12% for the late payment of the gratuity
amount and other legal dues.
For Petitioner .. Mr.S.Ravi
For Respondents .. Mr.G.Saravana Kumar,
Standing Counsel (for R.1)
Mr.C.S.K.Sathish (for R.2)
ORDER
In this writ petition, the prayer is for the grant of interest for
the belated settlement of retirement benefits like P.F, Gratuity, and
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W.P.No.24446 of 2021
encashment of Earned Leave/sick leave etc. As a matter of fact, this
Court, both Single Judges and Division Benches dealt with such
prayer earlier for payment of interest for the belated settlement of
retirement benefits to the retired transport employees.
2.The Courts have been granting payment of interest @ 4% or
6% as the case may be. In some cases, the Division Bench of this
Court has granted 6% interest and in few other cases this Court has
granted 4% interest. On the whole, this Court finds that, there is no
consensus as to whether 4% or 6% to be granted in such matters
where the employees have been settled their retirement benefits
belatedly due to resource crunch faced by the State Corporation.
3. Today, when this batch of writ petitions have been taken up
for hearing, there was a clamour for claiming higher interest of 6
percent and it was also opposed by the counsels who are
representing the corporations. According to them in a recent decision
of the learned Judge of this Court in W.P.No.23229 of 2021 dated
28.10.2021, after taking into account the various earlier orders, has
granted only 4 percent interest. Per contra, the learned counsel
Mr.L.Chandra Kumar and Mr.Ajay khoshe would rely on a decision of
the Division Bench of this Court in W.A.(MD).No.1349 & 1350 of 2021
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W.P.No.24446 of 2021
dated 12.07.2021, wherein there was a direction to pay 6% interest.
A learned Judge of this Court following the above Division Bench
Judgment in Writ Appeal No.1349 & 1350 of 2021, in a batch of Writ
Petitions in W.P.Nos.15636, 15640, 15647, 15651, 15654 & 15656 of
2021 dated 29.07.2021 has once again granted 6% interest for the
delayed payments. One other learned Judge of this Court vide order
dated 02.07.2021 in W.P.No.10553 of 2021 has ordered 6% interest.
Therefore, learned counsels appearing on behalf of the petitioners
would pray for 6% interest as majority of the judges have granted
the same.
4.At this learned counsels representing the Corporations
uniformly submitted that already the Corporations have suffered
huge losses due to Covid-19 situation prevailing in State for more
than 20 months. The Corporations would be unable to mobilize and
come up with funds to pay 6% interest. The Corporations are already
facing severe financial strain, and unable to sustain itself and any
further increase in the percentage of interest to be paid to the
employees, it would result in severe financial burden on the
corporation, which the Corporations would be unable to bear. The
Corporations would also have to take into consideration the serving
employees and the retiring employees also in future. Therefore, a
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W.P.No.24446 of 2021
passionate request has been made before this Court for grant of 4%
interest which should be reasonable and fair to compensate belated
payments made to the retired employees.
5. In consideration of the request emanating from the learned
Standing counsels for the Corporations, which appear to this Court to
be fair and reasonable considering the weak financial position of the
Corporations, this Court persuaded the learned counsels appearing
for the petitioners to accept 4% interest. All the counsels who are
representing the parties today have uniformly accepted 4% interest
to be payable on the belated payments made to the petitioners.
During the course of argument it is also agreed by all the counsels of
the corporation that the 4% interest payable would be settled in one
lump-sum, if 8 weeks time is granted to the Corporation.
6.In view of the consensus being reached by the parties, these
writ petitions are disposed of with the following directions;
The Corporation is directed to pay 4% interest to
all the employees who have been settled belatedly their
retirement benefits within a period of 8 weeks from the
receipt of copy of order of this Court. In case, some of
the employees who have not been settled their portion of
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W.P.No.24446 of 2021
the retirement benefits as such are also entitled to be
paid 4% interest till they receive the actual retirement
benefits in full.
Those payments would also carry 4% till the date it
is fully released by the corporation. The interest of 4%
would cover the period of 8 weeks from the date of
receipt of copy of this order.
Any further default of the payments by the
corporation, the interest would be enhanced to 6 percent
after the expiry of 8 weeks of period of time and such
percentage would become payable till the entire amounts
are settled to the employees concerned.
7.The present Writ Petition stand disposed of accordingly. No
costs.
09.12.2021
mrm/tri
Index:Yes/No
Internet:Yes
To
1.The Managing Director,
Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation
(Villupuram Division),
Vallatha Reddy Post, Villupuram.
2.The Administrator,
Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation,
Employees' Pension Fund Trust,
Thiruvalluvar House,
Pallavan Salai, Chennai - 600 002.
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis
W.P.No.24446 of 2021
V.PARTHIBAN,J.
tri/mrm
W.P.No.24446 of 2021
09.12.2021
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis
