Chennai: Nearly 19 years after his being aggrieved, a retired IAS officer got a reprieve with the Madras high court directing the state government to pay 5 months’ salary as gratuity to him with appropriate interest from 1995 till the amount is paid.
Dismissing the appeal by the revenue secretary, a division bench, comprising justices N. Paul Vasanthakumar and P.R. Shivakumar, said the amount payable was to be calculated by the appellant and paid to H.B.N. Shetty, a retired IAS officer, within 8 weeks.
According to Shetty, he joined the Indian Administrative Service, was allotted to Tamil Nadu, worked in various capacities and retired in April 1990. He was appointed vice-chairman of the Tamil Nadu Land Reforms Special Appellate Tribunal on November 1, 1990, and retired on October 30, 1995. He was not paid gratuity for the services rendered in this post. Hence, he made a representation on September 24, 1998 to the appellant, seeking sanction of gratuity. The appellant replied that his request cannot be considered. Challenging the order, he filed a petition and a single judge allowed his petition. Aggrieved, the revenue secretary filed the present appeal.
The bench said the conditions of service of the chairman and vice-chairman were stated in rule 16-A and 17 of the TN Land Reforms Special Appellate Tribunal Rules. The conditions of service of the chairman, vice-chairman or other member for which no express provision was available in these rules shall be determined by the rules and orders for the time being applicable to IAS officers of corresponding pay levels. Rule 18 of the Indian Administrative Service Rules (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) rules deals with the amount of gratuity or pension.
On a perusal of this rule, it was evident that in case a member of the service retires from service in accordance with the provisions of the rule before completing qualifying service of 10 years, gratuity shall be admissible at the rate of half month’s pay of each completed six monthly period of qualifying service. Shetty had not completed 10 years of service and retired after serving for five years. Hence, rule 18 (a) alone was applicable to him. If this rule was applied, Shetty, having served for five years was entitled to get five months’ salary as gratuity on the date of his retirement, viz., October 30, 1995, the bench added.
