Mrs.J Seshu Kumari vs The State Of Telangana And 3 Others
2022 Latest Caselaw 1488 Tel

 THE HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA
                                             AND
       THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE ABHINAND KUMAR SHAVILI

                     WRIT PETITION No.13231 of 2021

ORDER: (Per the Hon'ble the Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma)

         The petitioner before this Court, who is a widow of one

late J.G.S, Rama Rao, has filed the present writ petition praying

for the following relief:-

         "For all the above reasons, the petitioners pray that this
         Hon'ble Court may be pleased to Writ, Order or Direction
         more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus
         declaring the inaction of the respondents in not releasing

petitioner's family pension, gratuity, commutation value of pension, leave encashment and other emoluments that petitioner's husband is entitled on the pretext of the pendency of disciplinary proceedings though such disciplinary proceedings got abated by virtue of death of the delinquent employee on 25.5.2014 and further the pendency of the clearance proceedings between the two housing boards namely A.P. Housing Board and Telangana Housing Board etc. inspite of the order in O.A.No 393 of 2015 dated 02.06.2015 on the file of A.P.Administrative Tribunal and that the pension has to be fixed and paid by the Telangana Housing Board in view of the order in W.P.No.20469 of 2019 dated 20.2.2020 as highly illegal, arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law, opposed to principles of natural justice and also to the Judgement of Supreme Court and consequently direct the Respondents to release all the pension and terminal benefits together with interest that are due to the Petitioner's husband and for other reliefs, as otherwise the Petitioner would suffer irreparable loss and injury."

The facts of the case reveal that the petitioner's husband

was an employee of the Andhra Pradesh Housing Board (APHB)

and attained the age of superannuation on 31.07.2001 as

Executive Engineer. There were disciplinary cases pending

against him. The details of the disciplinary cases are

reproduced as under:-

i. Disciplinary Case relating to payment of excess compensation for land acquired at Nallapadu, Guntur District (File no.4431/B7VO/1997):- In this connection, the Petitioner's husband, without taking the permission or approval of the higher authorities, had issued a letter to the Secretary, Nallapadu Housing Board Allottees Welfare Association stating that the Housing Board will not charge the excess compensation of about Rs.30 lakhs, paid to the land owners will not be charged to the allottees. In this connection, charges were framed and sent to the Government vide this office Letter No.4431/B7/VO/2001, dated 25-10-2010. No reply has been received from the Government regarding the same so far.

ii. Case relating to IATA, Begumpet, Prakashnagar, Hyderabad. The relevant records are with the CB-CID (File no.1824/B7/VO/2001):- The husband of the Petitioner was involved in a case relating to the communication of a fabricated Revised Lay Out Plan, dated 10-04-1987, to the MCH as well as to Sri K. Raghuram Reddy, Secretary, IATA, Begumpet, without the approval of the Vice-Chairman and Housing Commissioner, APHB. The Articles of Charges were framed against him vide GO Ms No.120, dated 19.05.2001, and communicated to him. The concerned records were handed over to the CID, GOW, 11-09-2008 and the matter was pending with the Government as on the date of his death.

iii. Case pertaining to non-collection of Security Deposits, Bid Amounts and arrears of rents from the

tenants of shops at M.J. Road, Hyderabad (File no. 168/B7VO/2003):- In this regard, allegations were made against the husband of the Petitioner by the Government vide Letter No.4038/Vig.Cell/2002-1, dated 04-01-2003, and Articles of Charges were framed and issued vide G.O. Ms. Nos. 153, 154 & 155, dated 16-05-2003, to all the charged officers including the husband of the Petitioner. The Enquiry was conducted by the then Chief Engineer and report was submitted to the Government on 08-04-2005. Thereafter, the Government issued show cause notices and replies were submitted by the charged officers to the Government. Thereafter, the Government called for specific remarks which were submitted vide this office letter 19-05-2014. Further orders from the Government were being awaited in this regard."

There were three cases pending against the husband of

the petitioner and during his lifetime, he was paid provisional

pension and other retiral dues were not paid to him.

Unfortunately, he expired on 25.05.2014 and the disciplinary

proceedings came to an end as abated in terms of G.O.Ms.No.76

dated 02.05.2011. Undisputedly, after the disciplinary

proceedings stood abated, the petitioner/widow is certainly

entitled for pension and it has not been disputed by the

respondents while filing counter affidavits. The

petitioner/widow was running from pillar to post right from

2014 and as nothing was being done in the matter, she has

approached this Court by filing the writ petition in the year

2021.

In the counter affidavits, the respondents have admitted

their liability. However, there is no answer to the delay which

has taken place in the matter. Undisputedly, the pension and

other retiral dues are required to be paid by the Telangana State

Housing Board in the light of the judgment dated 20.02.2020

delivered by a Division Bench of this Court in W.P.Nos.41913 of

2018, 13789 and 20469 of 2019. The operative portion of the

order passed by the Division Bench of this Court, which has

been affirmed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court, is reproduced as

under:-

119. Accordingly, the Writ Petitions are allowed to the following extent:

(a) the liability to pay full pension and pensionary benefits/family pension/funeral expenses to all retired employees of APHB who retired prior to 02-06-2014/to their legal heirs in the event of death of such retired employees (including work-charged employees) shall be borne by the TSHB exclusively as long as it retains exclusive control of 96% of the movable and immovable assets belonging to the erstwhile APHB and enjoys the income therefrom, till apportionment of assets and liabilities of the erstwhile APHB between the TSHB and the successor APHB;

(b) the TSHB shall give benefit of Revised Pay Scales, 2013 to pensioners/their legal heirs while calculating the pension and pensionary benefits/family pension w.e.f. 02-06-2014 and also pay them the Dearness Relief w.e.f. 01-07-2015;

(c) the arrears of pension and pensionary benefits/family pension/Dearness Relief shall be released to the pensioners/legal heirs of pensioners by the TSHB within two (02) months from today;

(d) all the above payments made by the TSHB and those paid by successor APHB after 02-06-2014 to pensioners/legal heirs of pensioners shall be taken note of when the apportionment of assets and liabilities takes place between the TSHB and successor APHB, and appropriate adjustment shall be made between the two entities depending on what formula is applied at that time to divide the assets and liabilities between them;

(e) The TSHB shall pay costs of Rs.2000/- (Rupees Two Thousand only) to each of the petitioners in the Writ Petitions within four (04) weeks."

In the light of the aforesaid, undisputedly the widow was

to be paid family pension, arrears of family pension and other

retiral dues for which her husband was entitled to. In respect of

delay which has taken place, the respondents have not stated

anything. The widow is surviving with great difficulty, as not a

single rupee has been paid to her after the sad demise of her

husband.

Therefore, in view of G.O.Ms.No.11 dated 24.04.2010, the

respondents are directed to release arrears of family pension,

regular family pension and other terminal dues, for which the

husband of the petitioner was entitled in terms of G.O.Ms.No.76

dated 02.05.2011, in favour of the petitioner. The exercise of

paying the aforesaid dues be concluded within a period of three

months from today. As the petitioner/widow was not at fault in

the matter, she will be entitled for interest at the rate of 8.5%

per annum from the date of entitlement till the date the amount

is actually paid to her. In case the aforesaid order is not

complied with by the respondents within three months from

today, the petitioner/widow shall be entitled for interest at the

rate of 12% per annum from the date of entitlement till the date

the amount is actually paid to her.

After the aforesaid order was dictated by this Court, in

respect of payment of interest, learned counsel appearing for

the Telangana State Housing Board and the Andhra Pradesh

Housing Board made an attempt to shift the responsibility of

delay in the matter of payment of pension on each other.

Therefore, at the first instance, the interest shall be paid

by the Telangana State Housing Board and the Telangana State

Housing Board shall be free to take recourse to the legal

remedies available for recovering the interest from the Andhra

Pradesh Housing Board by following due process of law.

With the aforesaid, the writ petition stands allowed.

Pending miscellaneous applications, if any, shall stand

closed. There shall be no order as to costs.

________________________ SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA, CJ

_______________________ ABHINAND KUMAR SHAVILI, J 25.03.2022 JSU