Chennai: Madras High Court has ordered notice to the General Manager of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (Kovai) in connection with a contempt of court case.
Justice M.M. Sundresh ordered notice on a contempt petition filed by R. Yessian, a retired employee of the transport corporation, which sought to punish the general manager for willfully disobeying the order of the court relating to his retirement benefits.
According to R.Y. George Williams, counsel for the petitioner, the judge ordered notice, requiring the presence of Govindharaju, the general manager of TN State Transport Corporation (Kovai) on October 24. The petitioner had joined TN State Transport Corporation as driver on August 5, 1981 and continued to work till his retirement on July 31, 2005, after completion of 24 years’ service at Valparai branch.
During his service, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him for allegedly not obeying the order of the branch manager to ply the vehicle from Valparai to Coimbatore on September 13, 1997. He gave an explanation that since there was some delay due to traffic when he reached Pollachi, as per the advice of the time-keeper he stopped the bus at Pollachi itself as there was no passenger.
However, charges were framed against him and based on the enquiry report, an order was passed on June 22, 2004, imposing punishment of reduction in basic pay and withholding his increment. He approached the high court and the order was kept in abeyance. While so, he retired on July 31, 2005, he added.
He said after retirement, his retirement benefits were not disbursed on the ground that since the order was kept in abeyance earlier, the basic pay could not be fixed for determining the retirement benefits.
While so, on July 13, 2007 his petition was dismissed with an observation to challenge any order passed against his interest. Since his retirement benefits and pension was not disbursed, again he approached the court to quash the order of the transport corporation and the court had on November 19, 2014 quash the 2004 order and directed the corporation to pay retirement benefits within three months. However, the transport corporation has not taken any steps to implement the order till date, he added.
