Jyoti Saran, J.@mdashMr. Satish Chandra Jha, learned Counsel for the petitioner, Mr. Rajesh Kumar Verma, learned Assisting Counsel to S.C.XI for the State and Mr. L.P.K. Rajgrihar, learned Counsel representing the Accountant General, Bihar are present.
2. With the consent of the parties, the matter has been taken up for disposal at the stage of admission.
3. The petitioner superannuated from the post of Accounts Clerk in the department of Minor Irrigation, Investigation Division, Patna with effect from 30.11.1996 and submitted his pension papers for payment of his post retiral and other dues. Upon non-payment of the dues, the petitioner filed a writ petition bearing C.W.J.C. No. 2070 of 2002 with a prayer to fix the pension and pensionary entitlements after taking into account the time bound promotion granted to the petitioner.
4. During the pendency of the writ petition, the time bound promotion granted to the petitioner was cancelled on grounds of not having passed the departmental examination. The writ petition was ultimately allowed by a Bench of this Court by order dated 16.12.2004 reported in
5. It appears that after disposal of the writ petition, the petitioner represented before the Secretary, Minor Irrigation on 4.3.2005 and whereupon a calculation of Rs. 4,15,124/- was made for payment to the petitioner. The petitioner at the stage of filing the writ petition complained non-payment of the calculated amount as also non-fixation of the pension and the other pensionary benefits. Thus, in that back-ground, the present writ petition was filed for direction to the respondent authorities for making payment of the balance amount together with interest in the light of the stipulation made in the Finance Department Circular bearing memo No. BC-1-116/75/4153 dated 7.11.1981 prescribing to payment of 5% interest on belated payment of family pension and death cum retiral gratuity.
6. A counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the respondent No. 2 the Secretary Minor Irrigation and in paragraph-6 thereof, the details of payment made to the petitioner under the head group insurance, leave encashment, gratuity, G.P.F., first time bound promotion and difference of salary on account of second time bound promotion have been spelt out. It was stated that the admitted arrears lave been paid to the petitioner.
7. A perusal of the statement made in the said paragraph shows that all these payments had been made to the petitioner even prior to the filing of the earlier writ petition before this Court except certain amounts towards the general provident fund.
8. It is next stated that following the order of the High Court in the writ petition filed by the petitioner, copy whereof has been placed at Annexure-2 to the writ petition, the order canceling the second time bound promotion was Withdrawn under memo No. 826 dated 19.3.2005 and the matter was referred to the Finance Department for confirmation of the second time bound promotion which was confirmed by the Minor Irrigation Department, Patna on 16.6.2005 and the difference of salary was paid to the petitioner on 25.8.2005, i.e. within eight months of the disposal of the writ petition by this Court.
9. In so far as the revision of gratuity and pension is concerned, the same was forwarded to the Accountant General for authorization and the gratuity was authorized on 6.9.2005. According to the statement made in paragraph-4 of the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the Accountant General, it is stated that the Accountant General has revised the pension and gratuity on the basis of the last pay drawn with effect from 2.1.1996 and notional pay of Rs. 7000+222 (RPP) and issued authorization order dated 6.9.2005 with intimation to the Executive engineer as also simultaneous information to the Treasury Officer, Buxar for ensuring payment of the pension and gratuity authorized by order dated 6.9.2005. It thus appears that the revised authorization of the petitioner was issued on 6.9.2005, i.e. within nine months of the disposal of the writ petition by this Court.
10. Having regard to the stages from which the claim of the petitioner has passed and has been finally adjudicated upon under the orders of this Court dated 16.12.2004 (Annexure-2) and in pursuance whereof, the authorities of the State Government have acted promptly leading to the issuance of revised pension and gratuity orders on 6.9.2005, I do not find that the petitioner has made out a case for award of interest in the light of the stipulations made in the circular dated 7.11.1981 appended at Annexure-4, and the said claim is rejected.
11. As admittedly, the entire admissible amounts together with arrears have been paid to the petitioner nothing survives in the writ petition and the same is disposed of.
