HON’BLE MRS JUSTI CE SUREPALLI NANDA

WRI T PETI TI ON No.7202 of 2023

ORDER:

Heard Sri Rama Krishna Kulkarni, learned counsel

appearing on behalf of petitioner, learned Assistant Government Pleader for Services-I , appearing on behalf of respondent No.1 and learned Assistant Government Pleader for Services-I I , appearing on behalf of respondent

No.2.

2. The petitioner approached this Court seeking the

prayer as under:

“…to issue Writ, Order or Direction, more particularly one in nature of Writ of Mandamus, declaring the action of the Respondent No.1 in not considering the Appeal Dated 27/01/2023 and the action of the Respondent No.2 in not considering the Applications/representations of the Petitioner for the Reimbursement of the Medical Bills submitted by him which were rejected vide Lr.No.231/2022, Lr.No.16/2023, Lr.No.17/2023 Lr.No.18/ 2023 though Essentiality Certificates were issued by the Medical Officers, Department of General Medicine, Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Punjagutta, Hyderabad and scrutinized by them, as illegal, arbitrary, unjust and against the principles of natural Justice and

against the settled law and pass...”.

3. The case of the petitioner, in brief is, that the petitioner is a retired Amin from Labour Court-II, Hyderabad, receiving pension and the petitioner is undergoing treatment along with his wife, G. Usha Rani, for coronary artery disease and Diabetes at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), Hyderabad. The petitioner has been incurring regular medical expenses and submitting claims for reimbursement to Respondent No.2, supported by all requisite documents including prescriptions, cash memos, essentiality and dependency certificates.

However, the reimbursement claims of Rs.63,187/- for the period from 07.05.2022 to 03.08.2022 (for the petitioner’s wife), Rs.35,863/- for the period from 03.08.2022 to 10.10.2022 (for the petitioner), and Rs.69,723/- (for the petitioner’s wife) were returned by Respondent No.2 citing alleged discrepancies between the prescriptions and cash memos, as well as procedural objections such as submission of bills which in fact must be on a date-wise basis instead of month-wise. The petitioner addressed all the objections and resubmitted the bills along with revised documents and detailed explanations, including representations dated 10.11.2022, 06.01.2023, and 15.09.2022. Despite these compliances by the petitioner, the claims of the petitioner were once again rejected by the 2^nd respondent through various communications, including Letter Nos. 180/2022, 187/2022, 211/2022, 231/2022, 16/2023, 17/2023, and 18/2023, and the petitioner filed the appeal before Respondent No.1 on 27.01.2023 against the rejection of petitioner’s representation by the 2^nd respondent and the said appeal was disposed of with a direction to the petitioner to comply with the earlier instructions of Respondent No.2, without addressing or considering the petitioner’s explanations and resubmissions.

Aggrieved by the order of the 1^st respondent, the petitioner had earlier approached this Hon’ble Court by filing W.P. No.13309 of 2019 and W.P. No.23865 of 2021, wherein this Court directed the respondents to consider his appeals and pass appropriate orders within six weeks. However, the Petitioner has approached this Hon’ble Court by filing present writ petition seeking a direction for reimbursement of the above-

mentioned medical bills.

4. PERUSED THE RECORD (A) The proceedings dated 26.12.2022 of the Presiding Officer (FAC), Labour Court-I I , Hyderabad addressed to the petitioner is extracted hereunder “Sir, Sub:- Reimbursement of Medical bills of Smt G. Usha Rani, W/o. Sri G. Bhasker Rao, Amin (Retd), Labour Court-II, Hyderabad – Information – Regarding Ref:-1. Your application for claiming medical imbursement (wife)

dated 20.08.2022 for an amount of Rs.79,420/-.

2. Resubmission of your Application for claiming Medical reimbursement (wife) for an amount of Rs.79,420/-

Dt 16.09.2022

3. Resubmission of yo