IMPORTANT POINT
The central legal point established in the judgment is the interpretation and application of the O.M. dated 29.05.2015 and O.M. dated 13.03.2019 regarding the extension of CGHS facilities to retired employees of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.

JUDGMENT

Rekha Palli, J. (Oral)

CM APPL. 4944/2024 (exemption)

1. Exemption allowed, subject to all just exceptions.

2. The application stands disposed of.

W.P.(C) 1171/2024 & CM APPL. 4945/2024 (stay)

3. The present writ petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India seeks to assail the order dated 16.02.2023 passed by the learned Central Administrative Tribunal in O.A.1874/2021. Vide the impugned order, learned Tribunal has allowed the original application filed by the respondent, and has consequently, directed the petitioner to issue CGHS card to him and his wife, subject to his paying the service charge on a cost to cost basis.

4. Before dealing with the rival submissions of the parties, the brief factual matrix, as emerging from the record may be noted.

5. The respondent joined the services of the petitioner as an Account Clerk in 1980, and was posted at the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) Headquarters at New Delhi. He was thereafter transferred to regional office, Dehradun in 1997, and again transferred back to Delhi in July, 2010. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, (MH&FW) issued an O.M. dated 29.05.2015, as per which all employees who had retired from services of KVS and were settled in Delhi/NCR were to be extended the CGHS facilities. Consequently, the petitioner issued an O.M. dated 21.08.2015 extending the benefits of CGHS facilities to all its superannuated employees who were settled in Delhi/NCR. Accordingly, the respondent, who had superannuated from service on 31.07.2015, was extended the CGHS facilities w.e.f. 11.12.2015, which facilities were continued till 30.11.2019.

6. However, when the respondent sought renewal of his CGHS card, he was informed that the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had issued an O.M. dated 13.03.2019, as per which the CGHS facilities to retired employees could be extended only to those individuals who had availed of CGHS facilities while in service. Since the respondent did not fall under this category, his request for extension of his CGHS card was rejected. Being aggrieved, the respondent made various representations to the petitioner on 07.08.2019 and 16.09.2019 and upon receiving no reply thereto, he approached the learned Tribunal by way of the aforesaid OA, which O.A. has been allowed vide the impugned order.

7. In support of the petition, Mr. N.K. Bhatnagar, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the impugned order is wholly perverse as the learned Tribunal has failed to appreciate that the petitioner was bound by the O.M. dated 13.03.2019 issued by the MHRD which clearly stipulated that only employees who were members of the CGHS during their service, would be entitled to receive the benefits thereof, after their superannuation. The respondent, was admittedly not holding a CGHS card during his service and had sought benefit thereof only w.e.f. 11.12.2015 and therefore, merely because he was granted the benefit of the CGHS facilities from 11.12.2015 to 30.11.2019, would not be a ground to override the conditions imposed vide O.M. dated 13.03.2019.

8. On the other hand, learned counsel for the respondent supports the impugned order and submits that the OM dated 13.03.2019 issued by the MHRD, on which reliance is sought to be placed by the petitioner, does not in any manner, direct that no such facilities will be extended to employees, who were not the members of the CGHS during service. Infact, the petitioner has, by misinterpreting the O.M. dated 13.03.2019 issued by the MHRD, wrongly issued an O.M of the same date wherein they have on their own, introduced a condition which has been found by the learned Tribunal to be arbitrary and illegal. He further submits that infact, the respondent was to be extended the CGHS facilities on the basis of the O.M. dated 27.05.2015 issued by the MHRD, which O.M continues to hold the field and the only condition therein is that the CGHS facilities will be extended only to those retired employees of KVS w