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Madras High CourtWP/13866/2021disposed of

G.Jawahar v. The Managing Director

2022-01-25Honourable Mr Justice V. Parthiban4 pages

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS

DATED : 25.01.2022 Coram The Hon'ble Mr. Justice V.PARTHIBAN W.P.No.13866 of 2021 1.G.Jawahar 2.D.Sreedhar 3.S.Ganesan 4.A.Devaraj 5.N.S.Ponmudi 6.L.Vasudevan 7.R.Krishnamurthy 8.M.Thanikachalam 9.P.Kumar 10.T.Gowthaman 11.S.Sivakumaran 12.V.Arumugam 13.V.S.Bharani 14.V.Sundaresan 15.C.Dhanumalaiyaperumal 16.A.Sundaramurthy 17.D.Appukutti 18.N.Manivannan 19.E.Subramanian 20.S.Balu 21.T.Balasubramanian 22.R.Susila 23.P.T.Dames Raj 24.R.Shanmugam 25.V.R.Muthukumar 26.C.Ayyasamy 27,C.Paramasivam 28.S.Venkatesan 29.C.Jaganathan 30.T.Sankar 31.S.Narasimhan 32.A.Duraisamy 33.R.Resulraj

...Petitioners

Vs.

1.The Managing Director, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (Chennai) Ltd., Pallavan Illam, Pallavan Salai,

2.The Administrator, Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Employees Pension Fund Trust, Pallavan Salai,

...Respondents

PRAYER:

Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying to issue a writ of Mandamus, directing the respondents to pay interest at the rate of 10% for the belated payment of Gratuity, Leave Salary and commutation of pension amount to the petitioners.

For Petitioners .. Mr.S.T.Varadarajulu For Respondents .. Mr.K.Moorthy, Standing Counsel for R.1 Mr.C.S.K.Sathish (for R.2)

ORDER

In this writ petition, the prayer is for the grant of interest for the belated settlement of retirement benefits like P.F, Gratuity, and encashment of Earned Leave/sick leave etc. As a matter of fact, this Court, both Single Judges and Division Benches dealt with such prayer earlier for payment of interest for the belated settlement of retirement benefits to the retired transport employees.

2.The Courts have been granting payment of interest @ 4% or 6% as the case may be. In some cases, the Division Bench of this Court has granted 6% interest and in few other cases this Court has granted 4% interest. On the whole, this Court finds that, there is no consensus as to whether 4% or 6% to be granted in such matters where the employees have been settled their retirement benefits belatedly due to resource crunch faced by the State Corporation.

3. Today, when this writ petition has been taken up for hearing, there was a clamour for claiming higher interest of 6 percent and it was also opposed by the counsel who is representing the corporation. According to him, in a recent decision of the learned Judge of this Court in W.P.No.23229 of 2021 dated 28.10.2021, after taking into account the various earlier orders, has granted only 4 percent interest. Per contra, the learned counsel Mr.S.T.Varadarajulu would rely on a decision of the Division Bench of this Court in W.A.(MD).No.1349 & 1350 of 2021 dated 12.07.2021, wherein there was a direction to pay 6% interest. A learned Judge of this Court following the above Division Bench Judgment in Writ Appeal Nos.1349 & 1350 of 2021,

in a batch of Writ Petitions in W.P.Nos.15636, 15640, 15647, 15651, 15654 & 15656 of 2021 dated 29.07.2021 has once again granted 6% interest for the delayed payments. One other learned Judge of this Court vide order dated 02.07.2021 in W.P.No.10553 of 2021 has ordered 6% interest. Therefore, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners would pray for 6% interest as majority of the judges have granted the same. 4.At this, learned counsel representing the Corporation submitted that already the Corporation has suffered huge losses due to Covid-19 situation prevailing in State for more than 20 months. The Corporation would be unable to mobilize and come up with funds to pay 6% interest.

The Corporation is already facing severe financial strain, and unable to sustain itself and any further increase in the percentage of interest to be paid to the employees, it would result in severe financial burden on the corporation, which the Corporation would be unable to bear. The Corporation would also have to take into consideration the serving employees and the retiring employees also in future. Therefore, a passionate request has been made before this Court for grant of 4% interest which should be reasonable and fair to compensate belated payments made to the retired employees.

5. In consideration of the request emanating from the learned Standing counsel for the Corporation, which appear to this Court to be fair and reasonable considering the weak financial position of the Corporation, this Court persuaded the learned counsel appearing for the petitioners to accept 4% interest. All the counsels who are representing the parties today have uniformly accepted 4% interest to be payable on the belated payments made to the petitioners. During the course of argument it is also agreed by the counsel of the corporation that the 4% interest payable would be settled in one lump-sum, if 8 weeks time is granted to the Corporation. 6.

In view of the consensus being reached by the parties, this writ petition is disposed of with the following directions; (a) The Corporation is directed to pay 4% interest to the employees who have been settled belatedly their retirement benefits within a period of 8 weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of the order of this Court. In case, some of the employees who have not been settled their portion of the retirement benefits as such are also entitled to be paid 4% interest till they receive the actual retirement benefits in full.

(b) Those payments would also carry 4% till the date it is fully released by the corporation. The interest of 4% would cover the period of 8 weeks from

the date of receipt of a copy of this order.

(c) Any further default of the payments by the corporation, the interest would be enhanced to 6 percent after the expiry of 8 weeks of period of time and such percentage would become payable till the entire amounts are settled to the employees concerned.

7. This Writ Petition stands disposed of accordingly. No costs.

Sd/- Assistant Registrar(CS-V) //True copy// Sub Assistant Registrar gsk/tri To 1.The Managing Director, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (Chennai) Ltd, Pallavan Illam, Pallavan Salai, 2.The Administrator, Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Employees Pension Fund Trust, Pallavan Salai, +1cc to Mr.S.T.Varadarajulu, Advocate SR.No.4528 W.P.No.13866 of 2021 PCH(CO) GMY(11/02/2022)