The court established that employees are entitled to interest on delayed retiral benefits and deprecated the practice of seeking affidavits to waive interest and withdraw cases.

Judgment

Mr. Jasgurpreet Singh Puri, J.

The present petition has been filed under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India seeking issuance of a writ in the nature of Mandamus directing the respondents to release gratuity, leave encashment and security amounting to Rs.2,22,000/- to the petitioner alongwith interest from the due date till its payment.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the petitioner was working as a Store Keeper in the respondents-Department/HAFED and he was compulsorily retired from the service on 25.07.2005. After the retirement of the petitioner, his entire retiral benefits i.e. gratuity and leave encashment were not paid to him and were adjusted towards an amount of Rs.16,32,881.24/- which was stated to be a recoverable amount from the petitioner and it was also decided that surcharge proceedings will be initiated against the petitioner. Thereafter the respondents-department filed surcharge proceedings under Section 101 of the Haryana Cooperative Societies Act 1984 (hereinafter to be referred to as the Act) against the petitioner to recover an amount of Rs.4,97,013/-. He further submitted that prior to his retirement, there was a punishment order against him on the basis of which a recovery was to be made for an amount of about thirteen lakhs. However, vide Annexure P-2 the surcharge proceedings were dismissed by the Registrar Cooperative Societies Haryana on 29.06.2022 and consequent upon the same vide Annexure P-4, the respondents-department itself took a decision to waive off the entire amount of Rs.13,93,463.13/- which was the surcharge amount claimed. In this way the entire recovery which was required to be made from the petitioner i.e. Rs.13,93,463.13/- was waived off by the department because the surcharge proceedings were dismissed by respondent No.2/Registrar Cooperative Societies vide Annexure P-2. The aforesaid order (Annexure P-4) was passed on 23.02.2018 and thereafter the petitioner made a representation to release the gratuity, medical security and leave encashment vide Annexure P-5 but the same has not been done. He further submitted that now today a short reply has been filed on behalf of respondents No.3 and 4 in which it has been so mentioned that the amount of security and leave encashment of Rs.2,21,598/- has been paid to the petitioner vide order dated 13.09.2023 (Annexure R-3). He submitted that the petitioner retired in the year 2005 and the aforesaid amount has been paid in the year 2023 and as such the petitioner is entitled for the grant of interest because the delay was not on the part of the petitioner and the aforesaid amount was wrongfully with-held by the respondents-HAFED

3. On the other hand, learned counsel for respondents No.3 and 4 while referring to the reply filed today submitted that since the surcharge proceedings were dropped by the department, the retiral benefits have now been paid on 13.09.2023 and the petitioner has furnished an affidavit on 13.07.2023 vide Annexure R-4 i.e. about two months before the aforesaid release of amount by stating that he undertakes that he will not claim any interest after the receipt of the aforesaid amount and will also withdraw the writ petition and therefore he is not entitled for any interest.

4. I have heard learned counsel for the parties.

5. The only issue involved in the present case is that after the retirement of the petitioner on 25.07.2005, the petitioner was not given his gratuity, leave encashment and security amounts on the ground that there was some amount of about thirteen lakhs recoverable from him. With regard to the aforesaid amount, the department proceeded under the Act but vide Annexure P-2, the surcharge proceedings were dismissed being barred by limitation and thereafter the department itself considered it fit to waive off the entire recoverable amount from the petitioner vide Annexure P-4 and thereafter now in the year 2023 the amount i.e. gratuity etc. has been paid to the petitioner.

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